Her Eyes
by bluekrishna
Summary: AU/AR. Some time after Kagome is ripped out of the past after the final battle with Naraku, a mysterious package arrives on Sesshomaru's doorstep. What will investigating this new arrival lead to? Bit of angst, some touching moments. I'm not sure how far I'm going to take this, but something about this idea tickled me.
1. Chapter 1

Overwhelming.

This feeling that swept through him threatened to topple the taiyoukai where he stood. He looked down into that small face topped with white curls and felt suddenly so very tiny. Fluffy ears turned this way and that as the boy dreamt, declaring his mixed parentage for all to see. He traced the delicate stripes on each cheek with one long claw, gentle lest he scratch that tender pale skin. Frosted lashes flickered and the pup's eyes opened to flash all the colors of the ocean at him in indignation. _Her eyes._

His already racing heart climbed to another plateau of thumping, filling his sensitive ears with a roaring, thunderous clamor. Sesshomaru took a hitching breath and blinked. He looked away from his son . . . _his son_ . . . before he lost all his composure. Snapping a look at the servant who held the pup up for his inspection. "Where?"

"A wandering one-eyed hermit left the basket on your doorstep."

"Hn." No ningen should ever have been able to get so close as to do so. "Did you question him?"

"Sesshomaru-sama, your guards did not stop him as he approached. He walked between the gateposts unmolested and left the same way." The female neko-youkai trembled as she looked up into his face. Was he truly that fearsome?

"Were they bewitched?"

"I know not, my lord, but it is possible." The woman looked ready to fall over in fright if he so much as growled in her direction. Not with his whelp in her arms, she wouldn't.

Before he'd really even thought about it, he scooped his pup out of the female's arms, frowning down into his son's serious face. A warm something lanced him in the heart as the boy mirrored his frown. Far from the disgust he'd expected to feel. After all, this pup represented everything he used to hate: The watering down of his mighty bloodline. The breaking of certain laws and customs. So where was all that carefully crafted disdain? Absent. _Perhaps this Sesshomaru is his father's son, after all._

Again, he felt all balance leave him as a scent he'd thought never to smell again wafted up to his nose from the babe's strange coverings. Sesshomaru leaned his face close and breathed deep. It sparked a memory . . ..

_"Aishiteru, Sesshomaru," she whispered to him in the dark, her dark hair fanned over his chest. _

_"You would say such a thing on the dawn of _this _day?" He asked her, wondering if she heard how his heart had sped up at her words. Or if her weak ningen senses kept her oblivious to how she affected him. "This day of all days?"_

_"I would have you know. You know, in case . . .." Now she lifted her head from his shoulder and looked him in the eye. He saw there the fire that drew him in the first place. Strength and wisdom beyond her scant few years. For all that he'd lived centuries, this onna had the power to make him feel . . . unsure, unsteady. A rare thing that he never thought to tolerate, let alone seek out._

_She tested him. In every way. Sesshomaru relished the challenge and rose to meet it. He rolled her small form under his and stared into eyes as blue as the sea. "This Sesshomaru does not require your love. Only that you _submit."

_And she does and, in so doing, shows him that she trusts him with her life, her heart, everything. Such perfect faith made him want to be worthy of it._

_But later, in the aftermath of the final battle, when he'd found himself surrounded by the screams and howls of her pack, he couldn't tear his eyes away from the last place he'd seen her. His pitiful half-brother clawed at the earth there, as though he would find her buried there. Sesshomaru knew better. The miko had gone out of the world, back to her own time, no doubt. He bit his lip to keep himself from joining them in their ululations. The loss he felt too keen to share. _

_"Rin. Jaken." Sesshomaru spun on his heel and started to walk away. His followers falling into step behind him. He took the reins of Ah-Un in hand._

_Inuyasha stepped into his path, growling, "After everything, you're just going to walk away?"_

_"Hn." He stared down at his half-brother, feeling a familiar sort of contemptuous anger bubble up in him. How dare the hanyou stand in his way? "I have lands to administrate. Now that Naraku is dead, I shall no doubt find that task much easier."_

_"But what about Kagome?" the kitsune kit wailed as he clung to the demon slayer's leg. _

_"Don't worry, Shippou, we'll get her back." Inuyasha said, shooting Sesshomaru a glare. "And Lord High and Mighty Asshole here is going to help."_

_"There is nothing this Sesshomaru can do." They didn't see how much this admission of impotence cost him. Nor would they, if he could help it._

_That damn halfbreed made to halt him again. How sorely the baka tested his patience. "How can you say that? You won't even try!"_

_"Whatever magic allowed her to travel between our worlds is gone. The Shikon jewel is no more," said Sesshomaru as he stepped around Inuyasha. "Be glad she is alive and home. We could instead be burying her this day."_

_"Let him go, Inuyasha." Miroku grabbed the hanyou's arm before he could continue in his unwise course. Sesshomaru felt a shard of gratitude towards the monk. She'd never forgive him if he slaughtered the insolent pup._

_"Keh. That son of a bitch never cared." _

How wrong you are, little brother. How very wrong. _None of this made it past his stiff lips as he strode away from them. The ones she'd loved. He took one more glance at the place she'd once stood so proud and defiant and whispered, "Aishiteru, Kagome."_

He snapped out of his reverie with a curt, "Hn."

Small hands played in his long hair as he nuzzled the pup.

Sesshomaru became aware that his servant had been speaking. He turned his golden gaze upon her to see that she had a scrap of paper in her hand, holding it out to him. He took it from her and commanded, "Leave us."

_Us?_ How easily the boy wormed his way into his regard. The corner of his mouth quirked up in a sardonic smile.

Setting the pup back in his basket, the lord lifted both and sat at his writing desk. Making sure the child lay close at hand, he opened the letter.

_'My Sesshomaru,' _"And they say I'm the arrogant one." He hummed in amusement and continued reading.

'_All these long months, I wondered how you were. What you were doing. If you found happiness. Nothing I could find in my grandfather's library could tell me of what happened to all of my friends. To you. I watched my belly grow with joy and sorrow. And on the day he was born, how I ached wishing you were there to see him. He's beautiful, is he not? Those cute ears. _

_It is because of his . . . differences that I send him to you, though it breaks my heart to do so. He is not safe here. There is something happening in Tokyo that I don't understand as yet. Strange occurrences that have our people baffled. All my power and knowledge I bent to the task of giving our son a chance to live. And know his father. A boy needs his father._

_I know it will be hard. He is hanyou. And you hate the idea of them so much. But please soften your heart to him, as you once did to me. If you ever had an ounce of caring for me, please . . . acknowledge him. Do not turn him away._

_His name is Kenshin._

_-Kagome.'_

He read with dawning horror. _Acknowledge him?_ Did she not know that naming this pup his heir would most assuredly make him the target of every assassin in Japan? Not to mention his own court bowing to a hanyou? Impossible. Just impossible. How could he set this boy before any full-blooded pup of his he might whelp on a youkai female?

Fear lanced through him as he contemplated raising the pup himself. Was he up to the task? Or would he end up hating the boy when he failed to live up to his father's expectations. It seemed inevitable. He looked over at his son and brushed a lock of silver hair away from one downy cheek. "Oh, miko, what have you done?"


	2. Chapter 2

It began with a question.

"Sesshomaru-sama, why do you stare so out over the meadow?" A soft, warm voice broke his meditation. He waited for annoyance to ripple through him, felt a tad bereft when it failed to. Strange.

He felt his brow crease as he turned to that voice. Blue eyes, bright even under the gibbous moon looked back at him with honest curiosity. Ah, the miko who had his half-brother on a leash. He appraised her with a raised brow. Human meant inconsequential in his vocabulary, but this onna had the annoying habit of having thwarted him on more than one occasion. _True, she is the Shikon Miko and houses a power in her weak human body that rivals lesser demons. And some . . . not so lesser. _

Contemplating her question, he surmised there to be no harm in answering, "I watch."

"Watching what, lord?" Her courtesy shouldn't have astonished him, since it was his due. But from her, it seemed somehow different. More sincere, maybe.

He tilted his head as he looked down at her. Her senses must truly be feeble. Spreading his one hand out toward that field, Sesshomaru let his aura, his jyaki, flare. There came an immediate response, a chain reaction of bright motes of light in that meadow as the multitude of tiny beings that resided there fled his threatening presence. Thousands of small globes of radiance flew upward and away.

A glance to the side took him aback for a moment. The miko's face filled with rapturous delight as she watched. It made her seem so young, as young as his ward, Rin. He looked back at the field and tried to see it as she saw it. Something commonplace, banal even, but somewhere in it, she saw more. What could she see that he did not? She said, awe coloring her tone, "What are they?"

"Spirits, no bigger than a grain of sand." What sort of miko did not know this?

"So pretty," she whispered, breathless. The lights flew about each other in a dizzying display, even he had to admit they had an aesthetic quality.

Sesshomaru almost started at a light touch on his arm._ She would dare? _He stared down at the offending appendage, then a little higher at the miko, but so entranced was she that his ire went unnoticed. He couldn't remember the last time someone laid a hand on his person without his permission. This strange little ningen's bravery astounded him.

She made a sound of disappointment as the field emptied, hand reaching out as though to catch the spirits and bring them back. "Aw, why are they leaving?"

"They believe this Sesshomaru wishes to devour them." He smirked at the look of dismay she shot him.

"You wouldn't do that, would you, Sesshomaru-sama?"

"Do not presume to tell me what I would or would not do." The demon lord flashed narrowed eyes at her, though, in truth, her impudence didn't raise more than a whisper of anger in him. But respect is everything. He felt a touch of surprise when she didn't shrink away.

Instead, she looked up at him with a cheeky grin. "If you had wished to eat them, you wouldn't be just watching them."

"Hn."

"I think you find them pretty, too. I think you find it soothing." Her playful tone teased him. Then the hand that he, for some unaccountable reason, hadn't removed at the wrist squeezed his arm and shocked him with a surge of mysterious warmth that tingled along his skin there. She continued, "I think you like to watch them dance."

He suppressed a growl with difficulty. _Ningen, always overstepping their bounds. _"This Sesshomaru cares not."

Silence followed his soft declaration and when her hand left his arm, he frowned at the foreign emotion that flickered in him. A sort of disquiet he wanted to label disappointment. Why he should feel it now that the onna remembered her place, he didn't know. He watched her face turn back to look into that field, saw it gain a pensive cast. Nothing remained in the meadow to hold his attention. Besides, he'd found a much more intriguing mystery in the human female beside him.

She broke the silence first. "We're getting closer."

"Hn." Sesshomaru flipped his long hair back over his shoulder and ran his hand over his moko-moko. "The dark hanyou makes many mistakes. Soon, this Sesshomaru will end him."

"Very soon, I hope. We'll catch up to him and . . . and we'll . . .." She faltered, and her fingers flew up to play with her bottom lip.

"The time for squeamishness has passed."

She sighed. "Yes, it has. Naraku will reap what he's sown. No one who's done what he's done should get away with it." The miko dropped a fisted hand into open palm, strength filling her stance. "We'll kill him."

He expected to be amused at this kitten playing at being a tiger, but in that moment, she did seem imposing. Sesshomaru knew then that he made the right decision joining forces with her pack. They made good allies. They'd help him fulfill his personal vendetta with that filth, Naraku.

The miko sighed again, sadness in the soft exhalation. Sesshomaru turned his head to see what caught her attention and saw a long serpentine shape ghost over the trees, a white orb in its clutches. He mumbled, "A soul stealer."

"Hmm," she intoned, eyes turning stormy under lowered brows.

"The undead miko is nearby." He'd felt her presence enter the forest long before the sun went down and they made camp, but dismissed her as unimportant at the time.

"Kikyo. Inuyasha will go to her."

Sesshomaru watched her chew on her lip for a time before commenting, "This bothers you."

"Used to. Now I'm more . . . resigned than anything."

"Then why do you still follow him?"

"Other than finding all the jewel shards? And defeating Naraku?" She paused, looking thoughtful. He allowed her this time as he knew she gave his question all due consideration. It pleased him that she didn't take him or his query lightly. Slow, as if she drew it from her like water from a deep well, she said, "He was the first."

Puzzled, Sesshomaru leaned toward her and drew in a deep breath through his nose. Her hair tickled his face. He closed his eyes as he searched her scent for a change. No, her virginity remained intact. He opened his eyes to see that she stared at him with wide saucer-like eyes. This close, his face inches from hers, the moon illuminated her well enough so that he could see the flush that spread over her cheeks and nose. Frowning, he settled back on the tree he'd rested on previous to her arrival. "You are as yet untouched."

The miko gave him a tight, too-bright smile as she leaned away from him for a moment. Her embarrassment confused the taiyoukai. She hid her chagrin behind one elegant hand. "I didn't mean that way, Sesshomaru-sama."

"Hn." He gestured that she explain then.

"I-I, well,-" she sputtered, clearly flustered. Then she coughed and calmed herself. She peered at him from under ebony bangs. "Have you never known love, Sesshomaru?"

He suppressed a snort. "Love is a useless emotion."

"Really?" she queried. Under the politeness, he heard dissent.

"Love does not clothe or feed this Sesshomaru. Love does not keep my lands in order or defeat powerful enemies like Naraku," he began, suddenly aware that this was the longest he'd ever conversed with any one being. The miko gave an almost imperceptible shake of her head. He mused, "You disagree."

"All I know is I didn't feel as much before I met him. I was a silly girl then, infatuated and naive." She looked up at the moon and hugged herself. "I thought love was all roses and chocolate. And happy endings. He touched a well in me and made ripples. It . . . woke me up. The world became brighter, clearer. More precious. With the highs came the lows. But I was glad all the same. I didn't know love could be so sad."

"It sounds like weakness. Why hurt if one is not bleeding?" Better to not have it at all then.

"Food feeds the body. Love feeds the soul. Makes it strong. Brave." She laughed, a light musical sound that drew him closer. She gestured to herself in a self-deprecating sweep. "Without it, I don't think I could have ever come this far."

Such a thing almost made his vengeance seem petty. It gained him nothing but the prevention of further diminishment. He struggled to dismiss this unwelcome thought. No, nothing could be as important as addressing the slight to his honor. Naraku deserved to die just for that. But still . . . there could be no denying the pull of her assertions. What could there be in this fanciful notion called love that others found rewarding?

"Not that it matters," the miko said, shrugging, "I'll always come second to her in his eyes. She's better than me in every way, I suppose. Definitely better at this miko nonsense. He loves her and I guess that means he'll never see me for me. I'm just her shadow."

"No, miko. _She_ is just your shadow. You are the Shikon Miko. Your soul empowers that construct. My half-brother," he spat the word, how it burned to acknowledge the baka even that much, "sees only the woman from his past, not the clay imitation of the present. Someday, he will know his folly."

The miko made a non-committal noise in her throat, but turned a sweet smile upon him. "Careful, Sesshomaru-sama, someone might think you care."

He felt a tremor of doubt fill him. Did he care? He felt a frown tug at his mouth. Just then a flash of red caught his eye out there in the treetops. "He goes."

The miko at his side turned on her heel and stalked back toward camp. Her voice called to him and he turned to see her shoot him an unreadable look over her shoulder. "This Kagome cares not."

His brows lifted in surprise as he watched her slip through the forest and settle at her bedroll. The fox kit and Rin squirmed into her lap the moment she sat and soon the trio slumbered in the firelight. A half-smile played around his lips as he pondered her words. They meant to mock him, surely, yet he could find no umbrage in him about it.

The meadow seemed so empty now as he turned his attention back to it. His flashy and prideful demonstration would probably keep the lowly spirits away for a fortnight. Too bad, for though he'd never admit it to anyone, he _did_ 'like' to watch their small movements in the tall grasses. A soft noise left his mouth and he startled himself with the realization that it sounded like a short chuckle. So much so that it begged a repeat. He listened to himself laugh with a touch of wonder. Had he ever laughed before? He couldn't recall.

The rest of the night he spent in heavy contemplation of all he'd experienced the night before and the small miko at the campsite at his back.


	3. Chapter 3

Sesshomaru, lord of the Western Lands, deliberated for six whole days.

His castle seemed empty, with the way his servants crept from room to room, showing a surprising talent for stealth. He knew they felt anxious, unsure why their lord brooded and fearful of what he might do once he left his self-imposed confinement. With senses that extended throughout the whole of his abode, he heard them scurry and whisper. Already, the rumors spread.

The pup he left in the care of the neko demon that found him. After warning her of the consequences should she lack discretion, of course. The look of abject terror in her eyes gratified him. It told him she'd handle the boy with care. He'd know if she didn't. Nothing occurred under his roof without his knowledge. He knew when the pup slept, when he ate, when he cried out for the absent comfort of his mother's presence. Thankfully, this did not happen often. Those gusty wails that rang through his halls provoked a headache in Sesshomaru's already crowded mind.

With reluctance, the lord realized how ill-equipped he was to handle the situation on his own. And, while he knew he could trust his vassals to the point of pain, his court remained a completely different matter altogether. Between the intrigues and politics, assassinations, frequent shows of military prowess and securing of his borders, his son had a very low chance of survival. Here, at least.

Sesshomaru stood from where he'd sat for the last week and, with practiced ease, dressed for travel. He pondered for a moment his left arm, how the skin still seemed a tiny bit paler in comparison to the rest of him. Since regrowing it and acquiring Bakusaiga, he still marveled at times on how easy certain simple tasks became with the aid of _two _hands. As he prided himself on his self-sufficiency, he'd spent a lot of time learning how to cope with just one arm. But some things resisted mastery, like . . . tying knots one-handed. He managed. Maybe not with as much grace as he'd like, but still. How nice to not have to deal with that any more.

Armed and armored, he strode to his courtyard. A hush followed him. The few servants he encountered abased themselves before him. Pride touched the lord, then. Responsibility for these lives had sat on his shoulders alone since a young age, younger than when most lords came into their power. He knew he'd done well. The Western Lands prospered under his rule.

But now came a challenge that might throw all of that into chaos. Would, in all likelihood. Odd that it came shaped as a half-breed child.

"Jaken." The most faithful of his vassals appeared at his soft call.

"Yes, Sesshomaru-sama?" The imp-like demon said from where he bowed in the dirt. For a moment, Sesshomaru felt the temptation to give Jaken a little kick, as he did in days past to merely pass the time.

"Bring me the pup. Wrapped for warmth against the fall chill." Within moments, Jaken accomplished the task and the boy lay in the crook of his arm, looking around with those so curious eyes of his. So like little mirrors of the sky they seemed. Sesshomaru cocked an eyebrow at their voracious interest. "Jaken, mind the household."

Bending his powers to his will, a small cloud of youki formed at his feet and bore them aloft. The boy made a sound of pure delight as they flew over the walls and fields surrounding his castle. He felt a stirring urge to smile with the babe and indulged. No one else could see him after all, except a pup who couldn't let anyone know the great and terrible inu-youkai smiled for no other reason than to do so.

He passed the stones that marked the edge of his domain within the hour, heading east. Something tickled at his nares and he breathed deep, trying to identify it. Another youkai. Headed in his direction. He squinted against the wind to focus on a speck on the horizon. With a practiced flick of a thumb, he released the knots that secured his swords into their scabbards and waited.

That dot resolved itself into the familiar shape of Guhin, tengu lieutenant of his armies of the West. The mountain goblin's gripped a halberd in one hand. Not many would meet their lord with naked blade unless something dire happened or they planned something very foolish. Sesshomaru frowned at the other's unexpected intrusion.

The tengu wheeled to bring himself alongside his lord. Sesshomaru acknowledged him with a nod. Guhin eyed the bundle in the lord's arms and said, "Why does the lord leave his lands at so inauspicious a time?"

"This Sesshomaru does as he pleases," his stern tone warned, "Return to your people's mountain aeries and worry not over the business of your betters."

"Your servant apologizes, Sesshomaru-sama." The mountain goblin genuflected mid-air, his light armor clanking. "General Byakko merely wished to know if the lord needed an escort to . . .."

Sesshomaru didn't rise to the bait, suspicion raising red flags in the back of his mind. "Where I go is my own business, tengu. Byakko would do well to remember who commands the West."

Guhin swooped in front of him, making him stop or collide with the feathered upstart. "Your court demands your presence. They have questions about . . . _that."_ The tengu jabbed a thorny talon in the direction of the pup.

The thought of impending battle made a pleasant thrumming alight along his skin. Sesshomaru cradled the pup in his moko-moko, knowing that, as an extension of himself, it wouldn't let his son fall. In a pleasant, but deadly tone, he said, "They . . . _demand?"_

"The war with the Eastern youkai rages on and the lord has yet to produce an full-blooded heir. They wish only to have . . . assurances-," the bird youkai stammered, rubbing his long beak of a nose, "and now you leave your house to fly east with a hanyou basta-SQUAWK!"

A second later, if the tengu had been the tiniest bit less prepared, Guhin would have been spitted on Bakusaiga. The ring of steel on steel filled the air as they fought above the tree tops. But as fast as the mountain goblin attacked, Sesshomaru countered with very little effort. The inu felt grim satisfaction in every exchange. "I have to admit, I didn't expect the court to make so bold a move this soon."

Guhin grunted as he defended with wild slashes. "Some in your court believe your judgement is slipping! Perhaps it is time for a change!"

"This Sesshomaru thinks the traitor might speak a truth of sorts. Though _you_ will never see it come to pass!" With a last thrust, Sesshomaru buried Bakusaiga in the tengu's breast. He yanked it free and watched as the youkai's body disintegrated as it fell to the ground. Sheathing his sword, he once more took his son into his arms and spoke down into blue eyes that looked up at him in awe, "Lesson one: Respect is everything. It must be taken. There is only one punishment for betrayal. That baka tengu should have realized he sealed his fate with the flapping of his tongue."

He sighed as small, pudgy fingers buried themselves in his hair. "We'll revisit this lesson when you're older . . .. Often."

The wind in his face, the rush of adrenaline in his veins did well to distract him from unpleasant thoughts of the vipers he left back there in his house. Once his son as safe as one could realistically hope, Sesshomaru planned to do a little weeding. He mused, _Culling might be a better word._

The sun lay on the horizon before he reached his destination. He landed outside of the human settlement so that he wouldn't falter mid-flight as he passed through the village's protective barrier. As he breached the boundaries marked by rice paddies, he couldn't help but shiver at the purifying energies that washed over him. Sesshomaru thwarted them with a wave of his hand and they ceased pestering him. He'd been here before many times and meant no harm.

He sought out a familiar house and waited in front as he always had for the ningen inside to feel his presence. The older one probably felt him coming miles away. The door slid open and a young girl who looked older than he remembered threw herself out to greet him with a shouted, "Sesshomaru-sama! Rin is so happy to see you!"

She slid to a stop before him, all eagerness and affection. Her brown eyes sparkled up at him and he couldn't resist resting one hand on her messy black hair for a moment. "Rin."

"We didn't expect a visit from you til spring, lord." Kaede said from the doorway. "A long way to travel so close to the end of the year."

"What is a few leagues to this Sesshomaru?" He followed them as they beckoned him inside with words of welcome. He left his sandals on their porch and sat with them at their small hearth. "Is that hanyou residing here?"

Kaede chuckled, and said, with a warm smile, "When your half-brother deigns to grace us with his ill manners and foul temperament, yes."

"Currently?"

"Rin hasn't seen Inuyasha for three moons, Sesshomaru-sama," said the girl who sat to his right. For all that she seemed on the verge of puberty, her eyes still exuded wonderment and adoration. Pleasant to be regarded so past his titles and airs. Only one other had ever done so.

Just then, his pup hiccoughed, loud and unmistakable. Sesshomaru watched with hidden amusement as the old priestess dropped her ladle into the soup kettle with a clang. She turned to him with glacial slowness, shock on her face. Kaede swallowed as her eyes moved to his arm, where the boy lay concealed in his moko-moko. He watched her screw up her courage to ask, "What do you have there, Sesshomaru-sama?"

He revealed the tiny pup to them. Rin exclaimed in wordless amazement as she peered down into the boy's face. Kaede crowded close as well, though leery of testing Sesshomaru's tolerance of her proximity. Her sharp eyes flicked from the babe's face to his and back. Sesshomaru nodded to confirm the question in her eyes.

"Oooh, so kawaii!" Rin, bold as ever, tweaked one of the boy's soft little ears. It elicited a displeased little growl from his son, along with a monstrously huge yawn. Sesshomaru felt his lips twitch in response.

"How?" Kaede asked.

"I know not. A one-eyed hermit brought the pup to my doorstep. I had my guards search for him after, but they did not find a single sign of him."

"Strange . . .."

"May Rin hold him?"

He deposited his son into her arms and turned to the elderly priestess. "When will Inuyasha be back?"

"He's never away for long."

"Good." When it looked like she expected more, he arched a brow at her and waved a hand towards his son. "I have a task for him."

Kaede looked taken aback. Her hand flew to her chest. "Are you sure that's-"

Sesshomaru warned her against questioning his judgement with a look. Did he not spend six sleepless days and nights thinking about this? Not that he really needed sleep as much as ningen did, but she should know by now that he never did anything without due consideration. "He shall not do it alone."

"No, of course not. Rin will help. Rin will go get goat's milk for Sesshomaru-sama's pup." With that, she passed the babe on to Kaede and bounced out the door.

Kaede handled the boy with ginger care, arranging him in her arms. She hand a wizened hand over his short silver curls and smiled. "He is beautiful, lord. I see much of you in him. And her, as well."

"Hn." He kept his face serene. She didn't need to know how her observation pleased him.

"It may be several weeks before that Inuyasha shows up." Her eyes told him if he needed her to keep the boy so he could be on his way, she would do this. For the pup's sake as well as for her lost friend's.

"This Sesshomaru will wait." He had a feeling that the importance of this task might need to be communicated with force. Such things required a delicate hand when dealing with his volatile half-brother. But in that, he'd learned a few tricks from the miko. Tricks that he knew would come in handy someday.


	4. Chapter 4

" '. . . is clouded with a doubt)— To the island-valley of Avalon; where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow, nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns and bowery hollows crowned with summer sea, where I will heal me of my grievous wound.'" Her soft voice lilted in an interesting cadence as she read from a book to the children at her feet. Rin and Shippo made twin sounds of amazement that turned sour as Kagome placed a fallen leaf in the book to mark the page. "And I think that's enough for tonight. Time to sleep."

Sesshomaru listened close as his ward asked, "Rin doesn't understand. What does it mean?"

"And-and where is this Avalon?" added the fox kit. Soon questions flew about the miko as she struggled to answer one before another leapt upon her. All leading to one question that both children spoke in tandem. "Did any of that really happen?"

Kagome ran a hand over her face and sighed, then looked down into their tense and waiting faces. "Truth is, no one knows if King Arthur really existed or not. Whether a peerless warrior, or a symbol of virtue, or naive victim of fate, he's really more of an . . . idea than anything."

Shippo threw his hands in the air. "Bah! Then what's the point?" His huge eyes belied the cynicism of his words, however.

"Well, he and his Camelot are an ideal to strive for, a dream of a golden age. Sort of saying, 'Look at the heights we climbed to. See that we can get there again someday.' It is said that on his empty tomb, there is an inscription-'_Hic iacet Arthurus, rex quondam, rexque futurus.' _Here lies Arthur, once and future king."

"Future?" Rin asked, pulling at her bangs.

"Yes, the legend has it that when the world needs him most, King Arthur will wake from his slumber and return and a new Camelot shall rise, forevermore." With that, the miko admonished them, "Now sleep. I'll read more tomorrow night. If you're good."

"Kagome-chan, do you think I could be like that Mer-leen when I grow up?" Shippo yawned and rubbed his eyes.

The miko placed a kiss on the kit's brow and giggled. "I bet you can be even better at sorcery than Merlin."

"Rin wants to be like the pretty lady in the water."

Kagome gave her a little poke on the nose and said, "Kagome thinks Rin will be a very pretty lady one day."

Once the children slept, the miko stood and approached Sesshomaru, walking past her dozing companions. The inu lord nodded to her in greeting. The slim volume from which she'd read the fascinating story drew his eye where it lay tucked under her arm. "May I see it?"

She smiled and handed it over. Sesshomaru felt of the almost bark-like cover, read the neat characters on the front and spine. He opened it to a random page and saw how crisp and white they were. Such fine and thin wood-pulp paper he'd never seen. Curious, he licked a corner of a page, trying to discern its origin by taste, to no avail. And the words themselves a marvel, concise and spaced with flawless precision. He thought to himself, _This is not calligraphy. _Aloud, he said, "No brush has ever touched this paper."

The onna shifted from one foot to another under his questioning stare. Reluctantly, she said, "No, it's printed."

"Printed?"

"It . . . would be hard to explain."

"Do you think this Sesshomaru ignorant?" A note of warning entered his tone.

"What? No, no! I just-if-" she backpedaled, much to his amusement. "I'd have to explain a whole lot of other . . . things if I tried. Things you may not believe."

"I might surprise you with what I'd believe." He smirked and closed the book in his hand. "This Sesshomaru might have wondered where the miko goes when she leaps down the old well. He might have pondered the meaning of the ningen girl who dresses so scandalously and watched as she rode a strange two-wheeled contraption across the whole of Japan. She appears to know nothing of engineering or the forging of such a device, so one might conclude that wherever she hails from, these marvels must be commonplace."

Kagome gulped as she looked up at him, her face flushing. She seemed to have lost her voice, or perhaps he'd stolen her breath. Strangely satisfying to be the one to surprise her, for once.

He continued, "This Sesshomaru sees an inconsistency. The miko is obviously native to this country, but dresses in foreign attire made from plant fiber not found on this island. A cloth woven finer than any ningen homespun cotton. She carries books she can clearly read better than any peasant. She is no noble, nor wealthy enough to afford such largesse. How can this onna seem to belong, yet not belong? This Sesshomaru would know."

She gaped at him, blinking. After a long moment, she managed, "Sesshomaru-sama sees a lot."

"Indeed. Will you honor him with the truth?" Sesshomaru gestured for her to walk with him. The miko glanced back at her friends as though loathe to leave them without protection. He assured her with a drawled, "I will know if a threat approaches."

Thus comforted, she strode along the forest floor at his side. He waited for her to gather her thoughts. She laughed to herself and said, "I don't even know where to begin."

"Begin where it is always prudent to. The beginning." He favored her with a small half-smile and an encouraging wave of his one hand.

Kagome cleared her throat and nodded to herself. She looked at him from under her thick black lashes. "Well, it all started two years ago when a centipede youkai pulled me into the sacred well . . .."

He listened to her story with growing amazement, which he hid under a stoic mask. He interjected a few times to ask questions, and to clarify certain points. Despite his earlier words, he found himself struggling to believe. But logic told him that all evidence pointed in the same direction, confirming the veracity of her tale. When she reached the present, he asked, "And where are the youkai in this modern world of yours?"

"Gone. Disappeared or maybe hidden. They're remembered as legend only, part of a mythic age that never really existed."

Sesshomaru made a show of touching his own shoulder and chest. When she turned a questioning eye on him, he said, dry and amused, "This Sesshomaru feels very solid for being a mere myth."

Kagome giggled. "I can't believe you just made a joke. Can it be that there is a sense of humor under that all that pride?"

"This Sesshomaru has much to be proud of. The discipline to never show what he is thinking or feeling, for one." He half-turned to her and watched the moonlight glisten in her hair. "It does not mean he is incapable of either."

"I'm sorry. You're just so serious, most of the time." She flashed her teeth at him. From experience, he knew this as a display of pleasure among the ningen. Not the threat it meant among his own kind. He subdued the urge to rise to the challenge as his beast prodded him to and forced his muscles to relax once more. Kagome noticed his discomfort right away. "Did I do something wrong?"

"It need not concern you." To distract himself from her pale throat, he hefted the book once more. "So, this . . . poetry. It comes from your age?"

"As we've adopted the Gregorian calendar, I come from the year 1999 AD. This is sometime in the late 1400's._ Idylls of the King_ was written in 1859."

"The prose is far more elegant than I'd thought westerners capable of."

Again, she seemed startled. "You . . . know about Europe?"

He frowned. "This Sesshomaru has traveled." He found her incredulity a tad insulting.

"I didn't mean to offend, Sesshomaru-sama. I just meant, you know, limits of technology, plus Japan is an island-"

It seemed safer to interject before she truly did offend. "Youkai can fly. And I wasn't always tied to lordship."

"Of-of course." She averted her eyes. That pleased him. Then she surprised him with a question. "So you've been to other countries? Are there other youkai and things there?"

"This Sesshomaru has seen many strange places and peoples in the last five hundred years. The ancient land of the Han people with their stodgy, bureaucratic gods. The far northern wilderness where trees still walk. A land of dark-skinned ningen where Death himself owns residence." He resisted preening before her wondering gaze. "The westerners who wrote this book of poems of yours were not much but barbarians on the verge of eating each other when last this inu looked upon them."

"The dark ages," she whispered, in awe.

"It did seem a wolf's age," he agreed. Then he drew her attention back to the book. "Do you have anything of Japan?"

"I-I did, but this semester was British Literature, sooo . . .. Wait, I might have-I'll be right back." She sprinted back towards camp. Sesshomaru found in him the uncomfortable urge to give chase, nip at her heels. Maybe bring her down under his weight like the graceful deer she seemed running in the misty midnight gloom and-

He shook his head clear of such odd thoughts and growled softly at himself. What ailed him? For a moment, he almost had an answer, but a swelling denial swept through him before it could coalesce into more than a foggy inkling.

Sesshomaru looked up as she returned with another bound tome in her hands, much smaller than the one he still held. She passed it to him without a word. He, in similar fashion, gave her back the book about the sleeping king. He perused through the first few pages, noting that each page contained only three lines. Further study garnered an interesting tidbit, which he deigned to share. "Always, five, then seven, then five again. Why?"

"They are called haiku, Sesshomaru. Poems that follow a specific pattern, but in that pattern, limitless combination."

"I see. Three lines, only ten-and-seven syllables. One whole concept." The idea charmed him. He flipped to the back where the pages seemed a bit more wrinkled. There he found hand-written ones along with a slim metal cylinder that marked the latest entry. He shot her a query with his eyes.

"Oh, I, uh, I wrote those. Some publishers leave empty pages in the backs so you can add to them if you choose."

He read one aloud, "'_I lay in my bed/ wishing exams were over/ so I could go back.'"_

"I didn't say they were good." Embarrassment played about her face. He found it endearing, the way her eyes kept darting around, avoiding him. When she finally did meet his mirthful gaze, she stopped and her brows drew together. "Are you laughing at me, Sesshomaru-sama?"

"This Sesshomaru doesn't recall making a sound that could be construed as such." The corner of his mouth twitched, despite his best efforts to keep a straight face.

"You _are_ laughing at me!" She made a show of mock anger, hand on hip. Her finger stopped just shy of his chest. Sesshomaru snapped at it, clicking his teeth closed only an inch from her fingertip. Kagome pulled it back with a frightened, "Eep!" Her eyes went wide as she stared at him.

In truth, his action puzzled him as well. It seemed he lacked control over his compulsions around her. To cover up his obvious fumble, he smirked at her. _This Sesshomaru meant to do that._

The miko burst into laughter. He started at the sudden sound. Her mirth stretched on and on until he started to get concerned that she might pass out from lack of air. He tucked the book of haiku into the tamoto of his empty sleeve and reached out to grasp her quaking shoulder. "Kagome, breathe."

She sucked in oxygen between gasps, clutching her ribs. Calm restored, though her eyes still gleamed and her cheeks remained deeply flushed. Pink on porcelain. It came together in an alluring way. He felt an itch to let his hand slide up her long column of a neck and feel the pulse thrum there under her skin. Jerking his hand away, he stood stock-still, flustered.

Her rosy lips parted and she whispered, "I think that's the first time you've ever said my name."

He found he couldn't refute her claim.

Kagome swept her bangs out of her eyes slowly, locking stares with him. His heart accelerated as some undefinable feeling arced in the air between them like lightning. The tension mounted until he could barely stand still, a thing unheard of in his experience.

After what felt like an eternity, her eyes flicked away from his. Sesshomaru almost swayed in the absence of it. Reason reasserted itself and he watched her turn and head back toward camp. She said over her shoulder, "Thank you for the company and conversation, Sesshomaru."

The taiyoukai nodded, giving nothing away of his internal struggle for control. Unwilling to go back to camp until he had a few things sorted, he sat on a tree bole. He had much to think about this night.


	5. Chapter 5

"What's _he_ doin' here?" So began most of their conversations.

"This Sesshomaru is pleased to see you, too." Sarcasm colored his tone with sourness. The taiyoukai ran a hand through his hair, feeling the past try to manipulate him into reacting to his half-brother's vitriol as he'd always done. With violence. That would not do for his purposes.

"Hn." Inuyasha stomped into the small house and plopped down on the other side of the cookpot. He rolled over onto his side, presenting his back to the demon lord.

For his part, Sesshomaru felt torn between amusement and offense. And therein lay a sort of comfort in the idea that nothing had changed the dynamic of their relationship. Though, now, that also would deviate like a river from its well-worn familiar path, of course, but it couldn't be helped.

"Is that any way to greet your brother, Inuyasha?" Kaede admonished, waving a ladle in protest.

Sesshomaru smirked as he mouthed in sync with his brother's next words. "_Half-_brother!"

"You are ever predictable, _half_-brother," said Sesshomaru.

The hanyou lunged to his feet and shook a fist in his direction, shouting, "And you're still a stuck-up, prissy little motherfu-!"

"Inuyasha!" Armed with ladle, Kaede struck all along that thick skull until the hanyou shrank away from the blows, cowed and still cursing. "I won't have you say such filthy things in my house! I don't need prayer beads to put you down!"

Sesshomaru, impressed by the old priestess' fury, pursed his lips to keep them from spreading into a smile. He decided to extend the olive branch. "Do you not truly wonder why I am here?"

"Tch. To see Rin, like always."

"At least listen to the lord, Inuyasha. He's waited a long time for you to show up."

"Oh yeah? Well, I'm here. Now you can go back to your little castle and toy soldiers."

Sesshomaru sighed. It truly was difficult to speak to his crass fool of a brother. "This Sesshomaru finds himself in the unpleasant, but necessary position of asking a favor of his brother."

"_Half-_brother and you can-wait. What?" Now, the hanyou pricked up both ears and swung an incredulous face to him.

Just then, Rin returned from market, the boy in a sling across her chest and a basket under one arm. Tufts of silver hair peeked out over the rough cloth. "Rin is home. She found many good things for Sesshomaru-sama, Kaede-sama and herself to eat, along with fresh milk for the pup."

"The . . . pup?" Inuyasha gaped anew.

"Hello, Inuyasha! Rin missed you." The girl set down her groceries and handed the boy to Sesshomaru before turning to embrace the hanyou.

He put her by with a light shove. "Nevermind that nonsense! Who's kid is that?"

Sesshomaru let a smile surface on his face as he peeled back the sling's swaddling. He lifted the boy for the hanyou to see and said, with no small amount of smug pride, "Why, _mine. _Of course."

With the word 'mine', he flared his aura, leaving no doubt in anyone's mind how he felt about the matter. Inuyasha took one slow step after another until he stood only a foot away. Then he dropped into a crouch and stared, unbelieving, into a face topped by fluffy, pointed ears, so like his own. Sesshomaru watched thought after thought race over his brother's naked countenance and almost felt pity. Kagome had told him something of Inuyasha's life as an outcast.

"Knocked up some poor ningen girl, did we? Well, who is she so I know where to send my letter of consolati- . . .." His words trailed off as the babe opened silver-fringed eyes to reveal irises of an unmistakable color. "No . . .."

"Yes."

"How?"

"An oft-asked question. To which this Sesshomaru has no real answer."

"I would have known if she'd come back through the well."

"As would I."

"Then _how?"_ Inuyasha's eyes burned into his own and Sesshomaru was reminded that, while his brother's skill at combat did in no way approach his own, Inuyasha had a bonfire at his heart. Somewhere in his mixed blood, his two natures came together to make him all the more formidable. Demon strength, human passion. Would that his own son grew to be as such.

Sesshomaru chuckled to himself, _How strange to see a flaw in myself after so long believing demons were flawless. And to see a virtue in the weak ningen inhabitants of these lands. _"I have given you the answer to that already."

"Now, you have my attention. What do you want?" Inuyasha sat to his left, where he could clearly see the boy's face.

Sesshomaru brushed a finger over the back of the pup's hand. "I would have him safe. And this Sesshomaru can think of no place safer than among the people who loved his mother and could come to show him love."

"So you're just going to ditch him here." Bitterness flew from the hanyou's mouth. "I knew it. When it comes down to it, you're just the same selfish prick who hands his problems over for other people to take care of them."

It tempted fast and bloody retaliation, but Sesshomaru took a deep breath to calm the raging of his beast before looking at his brother full in the face. "Would you have him be like you?"

The words hit their mark with unerring accuracy. Sesshomaru felt some measure of regret for the agony he saw in Inuyasha's eyes. But then taiyoukai pressed on, "This Sesshomaru would not have others look upon his son and say words like 'outcast' and 'abomination.'"

"Words he himself used not long ago," accused the recipient of the same. Inuyasha ducked his head so that his bangs covered his eyes.

"It is true that I have fought for most of my life to keep the youkai and ningen worlds separate. You came to represent the worst of both to me. I saw only crudeness and lack of discipline. Perhaps that was wrong." Sesshomaru ran his fingers through his son's hair, felt of the softness of it. The downy fur along those ears tickled his hand as they flicked in reaction.

"Are you really admitting you were wrong?"

"This Sesshomaru is not infallible, as was proven to him on many an occasion. Much to his dismay." Sesshomaru almost laughed at the comical look of astonishment that crossed over his brother's face then. All of their faces, really. Even Rin's. "Do not seem so shocked. You strove so hard to witness such a thing once upon a time. Be glad."

"Yeah, but to hear you actually say it." Inuyasha shivered and glanced around. "Maybe someone should go check to see if hell froze over."

"I'd offer to send you there to check, but that would be counterproductive."

Kaede and Rin laughed at his wry quip while Inuyasha reeled in stunned amazement. The hanyou shook himself all over and said, "I can't believe I'm hearing this. And that you're-Or that I'm considering doing what you ask."

"Shall I beg?" Sesshomaru raised one elegant eyebrow to let him know that had no chance of happening. "My options are few. Father never took you to court, did he?"

"No, he didn't. I was too young. I'm sure he didn't want to flaunt his hanyou bastard, either."

"The slings and arrows you endured in the ningen world are nothing compared to the machinations of centuries-old demon lords. Their ambitions know no bounds. Most don't know an ounce of pity or remorse. They would not hesitate to devour an infant. Rip him to pieces and leave him for the carrion birds." He saw horror etched on their faces and felt gratified he'd gotten his point across. "They know of his existence, but not my intentions. Some may come to claim him, but here, away from the court and its influences, he might have a chance at more than just surviving."

Inuyasha's eyes told the story of what would become of any youkai that dared try to lay a hand on his nephew. Sesshomaru knew he had him, then. The task, though hard, would not find its champion wanting. "Where will you be?"

"Doing all that I can to thwart them. I have a responsibility to them as their lord. But I will come at times to see my son grow and attend to his lessons. He has much to learn."

"As long as you don't teach him to be an asshole, he should get along fine."

"You have no pride, brother. I would have him respected."

"You would have a lot of things, wouldn't you. Tch!" Inuyasha leaned closer so that they sat nose to nose. Sesshomaru felt his hackles raise meeting the challenging stare. A large part of him wanted to put this baka in his place. He refrained with difficulty. The hanyou said, low and cold, "Tell me this. Why would _you_ even bother with this half-breed mutt?"

Sesshomaru deliberated for a long moment before doing something he thought he'd never do before the hanyou. One by one, he let his defenses down, the walls he built up to protect his innermost self from outside forces. Layers of ice around his heart fell away. He let his true feelings filter through his gaze. The pain, the grief, the horrible regret. The worst parts of him lay bare. But also the best parts, like the shining warmth he'd learned from one unassuming woman from the other side of time and the compassion he'd learned after taking Rin as his ward. The mastery of his baser side and its unthinking cruelty.

From the way Inuyasha blinked, Sesshomaru knew the hanyou s_aw_. And knew the cost. Inuyasha sighed deep and long, then averted his eyes.

"There was a time when this Sesshomaru believed you'd stolen something from him. A deep desire, a challenge to end all challenges. If our father, the Inu No Taisho hadn't taken a ningen concubine to bed and whelped a half-breed brat on her, maybe I would have had the chance to best him in single combat and prove my worth to him. Taken all that was his for myself. But then he died saving you and your mother from other ningen. The fool rushed in wounded after his battle with Ryukotsusei and was defeated by weak humans. How could I help but feel robbed?" Sesshomaru stroked his son's head as he spoke of hurts long buried. "How could this Sesshomaru help but feel put aside for something that should not even exist. Hanyou, wretched things that belong to neither world and cause chaos in both. They disrupt the natural order of the world. A worthy son defeats his father, proving the strength of his blood, and the right to his existence. The youkai have always done it this way.

"And therein lies a fatal flaw. In youkai law, there is only desire, might and retribution. What you desire, you take. What you take, you fight to keep. And if something is taken from you, you pay it back sevenfold. We fight and we hardly know why we fight. We slaughter each other by the thousands over nothing but the pleasure in doing so. It is an empty existence. And I believe it will cost us everything."

His ominous words rang through the silent hut though he didn't speak much louder than a whisper.

Inuyasha pierced him with a steady gaze, and asked, showing a larger awareness and intelligence than Sesshomaru ever suspected, "What exactly _are_ your intentions, Sesshomaru?"

Sesshomaru let a fearsome smile curl his lips, the edge of a sharp tooth just visible. He loomed over his son and pressed a kiss to his soft forehead. Channeling his power to that point, Sesshomaru felt with growing satisfaction his work take hold. When he pulled away, the demon lord looked there and saw the crescent moon of his house adorn that pale skin between the brows. A skittering of fierce joy washed through him, as well as a terrible need to see what this half-breed pup of his would make of the future.

To those that watched with awe, he said, "He is my acknowledged heir."

He tickled the pup's cheek to hear him giggle and growl, then turned to his brother, for he could no longer deny their kinship with half-measures. All or nothing. He'd never settle for something in between. "Would you like to hold him?"

Wordless, Inuyasha reached out to receive him. His round features relaxed as he looked down at the babe in his arms. "What's his name?"

"Inu-Kenshin."

"'Modest truth', I like it." Inuyasha tossed the boy into the air and caught him easily. The hanyou laughed to hear Kenshin cry out in a happy gurgle. "Cute little bastard."

_Oh, yes, they will get on swimmingly, _thought the demon lord as he watched them play.

As he left later, flying away on his youki cloud, he ignored a pang in his heart. He looked to the moon, full and splendid and said, "And in this, too, father, I have bested you."

_I have done what you could not. _He might or might not have laughed then.


	6. Chapter 6

Battle filled their days and most of their nights, but once in a while there came a evening of peace. And in those few evenings, two of the unlikeliest of kindred spirits sought each other out.

Sesshomaru tucked the book of haiku into his sleeve with haste as he sensed the approach of the miko. He contemplated the meaning of the poem he'd just read as Kagome sat in the grass near him on his left. He found them fascinating. They drew insight and elegance in a couple measures. Pain and passion, two things ningen seemed able to capture well in the meager span of their short lives. Far from the rage and hate that his kind tended to glorify.

Kagome broke into his reverie. "Would you like some tea, Sesshomaru?"

He took the cup she offered with a grateful nod. The aroma of the tea teased his nose and before he could stop himself, he sneezed, holding the tea away from him so it wouldn't spill on his kimono. Giving himself a full body shake, he sipped the warm and soothing liquid. Only then did he notice the way Kagome held a hand over her mouth. The way her eyes danced told him that she stifled a laugh at his expense. He raised a brow in question.

"Just now, you reminded me of Inuyasha." Then she did giggle.

Mood souring, he set the cup in his lap. "This Sesshomaru should not like to be compared to that hanyou."

"I-I know. I just, you know, it's hard sometimes to believe you're related. You're polar opposites." She shrugged, her hands waving to illustrate her point. "He's hot-tempered where you seem . . .."

"Cold? Merciless?" Interested in how she saw him, he pressed the issue. "Does the miko find it off-putting?"

"No, not really. We need more level-headedness around here, I think. Plus, I don't think you're all that cold." She eyed him out of the corner of her periphery. "Or merciless."

His first instinct told him to refute her, to treat her words like a challenge. He did not want to be thought weak. Sesshomaru drawled, "I have been both. And more."

"I don't doubt that, Sesshomaru-sama." She set her bow aside and lay back in the grass, looking up at the stars that twinkled in the firmament. "I've thought about it a lot. About how you think."

"Oh?" Her presumption compelled him to ask.

"And I think . . . distance, and detachment are the key. You hold yourself far away so as to seem untouchable and powerful."

"Am I not, then? Powerful and untouchable?" Unprepared, he twitched as her hand came out to rest over his newly re-grown left hand. He felt a warm rush glide up that arm and swim around his chest cavity, lighting little fires in its wake. Sesshomaru fought a dozen conflicting primal urges then, at a loss as to what to do. "Miko . . .."

"Can you not call me Kagome? After all the time we've spent in conversation, does my name still escape you?" Her voice chided with a warm playfulness. He let her draw him down by his arm until he lay prone at her side. "Come. Watch the stars with me."

He could hardly do so for the weight of his awakening awareness of the soft female form so close to him. He felt an uncharacteristic nervousness flood his mind and body. Never could he recall being more unsure. He felt immobilized by indecision and lay still and quiet, in case something should topple him into the strange abyss that seemed so near somewhere within him. His senses buzzed, the stars seemed like to dazzle him with their intense luminosity.

Then a shape rose up to eclipse them and he found himself looking deep into blue eyes as deep and mysterious as the sky behind her head, unable to look away. She froze over him and he trembled. What power did the tiny woman have over him to make him do so? He did not care to name the fear and delight that warred in him, and suddenly that abyss did not seem so terrible. If he should fall, would it be with gladness?

Swallowing past a tongue that felt thick and clumsy, he managed, "Kagome, you are not watching the stars."

She smiled down at him with aching tenderness. "Yes, I am."

The dam broke and he reached for her, rolling them in the soft grass. It should have shamed him how the hunger for her blossomed and grew until it encompassed the world. Her lips he captured in his, nipping them until they swelled and tasted of her spicy blood. He worried for a moment about having harmed her, but then she moaned with such want that his beast roared for more and he dove back in, nuzzling and licking every part of her that lay exposed. Soon that didn't satisfy and he all but ripped her clothes off to be nearer her flesh. His own kimono and hakama lay in a heap nearby.

Running his hands over her unbelievably soft skin, he quaked and panted. Everything about her filled his senses to the brim. Her scent, her welcoming embrace, the little sounds of pleasure he could draw from her with a simple swipe of his palms down her body. Over the sweet mounds of her breasts, the delicious swell of her hips, his fingers danced. His nose led him down to her center, where he breathed deep, eyes rolling back into his head. Obeying a voice at the core of him, the song of his canine soul, his long tongue swept over her glistening sex.

Sesshomaru moaned, low and deep as she bucked up under him. His cock grew so hard that it pained him, weeping his essence onto the grass below. She tasted so sweet, so pure. He could do this forever and be grateful. Her sounds grew frantic and he watched her come undone before his very eyes. The walls of her quim contracted on his tongue in waves and he had trouble thinking past the idea of what that might feel like around another part of him. When she pulled at his shoulders, he crawled up her body until they met eye to lust-clouded eye.

He rested the tip of his manhood at her entrance and growled, "Submit."

And she did not, much to his mounting frustration. He growled and nipped at her chin. The light of confusion made her eyes even more beautiful, though she remained defiant. "Sesshomaru-?"

"_Submit!" _he growled, even deeper, his beast taking control. His youki started to escape in magenta streamers around his striped cheeks and no doubt, his eyes bled red fire. Again, he nipped her jawline.

This time, understanding seemed to strike her and with deliberate care, she bared her throat to him. He lunged, holding her sweet flesh between his fangs, but taking care not to puncture or tear. With a single thrust, he broke through her maidenhead and filled her. She cried out in pain. He licked her neck in apology and stroked her dark hair until her body relaxed under his. He ran his hands over her shaking limbs, kneading and trying to comfort. When she gave an impatient little wriggle of her pelvis, he smiled against her neck before taking it between his teeth once more.

'_Pin the female. Ravage her!' _spoke the beast and he grunted in refusal of that base creature. Instead, he worked a slow and easy rhythm, exerting what tremulous control he still possessed. He felt he might go mad with such a pace and whined, hot and needy.

"Sesshomaru," she called, cradling his face in her hands. He pushed his raging instincts back long enough to pull away and look at her. Tears rolled down her cheeks, but the smile she bestowed on him glowed with a blinding radiance. "It's okay. Let go." Then she pulled his mouth back down to her throat and smoothed both palms over his shoulderblades.

With a muffled shout, he plunged into her with abandon, losing that last little bit of restraint. How he kept from breaking her in half with his wild rutting, he did not know. He groaned against her, repeating one word over and over, just, _"Mine!"_

Her tight tunnel pulled and milked at his member, threatening to make him spill before she found completion. His pride would not allow that and used his hands to roll and tweak her nipples, sliding one down to work the bundle of nerves at the apex of her cleft. The way she arced under him told him she approved and soon, she called out his name breathless and quivering. He closed his eyes at the sensation of her squeezing him with her inner muscles. It felt just as wonderful as he'd imagined and with one long, ululating howl, he joined her in bliss. His heart seemed likely to burst in his chest with the force of it. Sesshomaru couldn't remember a climax anywhere near as potent in all his life. It consumed him.

He came to his senses, a gradual climb back to rationality. Kagome's hands traced figures over his skin, tingling and teasing. It felt so very nice, her legs and arms cradling him.

Then it struck him just what he'd done and he jerked away from her, lifting himself clear. She looked up at him in alarm, brows drawing together.

Sesshomaru felt terror coil in his guts as he stared down at her. He'd just lain with a ningen. And liked it. No, he'd_ loved_ it. His body still sang with pleasure, though he tried to deny it. Had he not said to others that one might as well hump the beasts of the field as seek pleasure with human women? All the spite and bitterness he felt before rose up in him then. He cast about for blame, his pride demanded a culprit for this heresy. But she looked so beautiful, still, with the starlight kissing her sweat-adorned skin and her ebony hair making a perfect fan of black satin under her paleness. He shook it free with a growl and a snap of his teeth.

Kagome lay her hand over his heart and he saw her confusion escalate into true worry. "Sesshoma-"

"No!" He interrupted. Then he made his face cold to her, though his heart beat a mad rhythm against his ribs at what he knew he had to do. "No. You will not rule this Sesshomaru."

Her face fell at his words, mouth dropping open in dismay. He turned from it before it destroyed what little resolve he had left.

The taiyoukai stood and dressed, feeling more and more secure as the layers of cloth draped over him. His inner defenses, shaken that they may be, fell into place with familiar implacability. He made to walk back to camp to gather his followers and leave this place of uncertainty and doubt before it became his undoing. Some distance, that's what he needed. And with distance, some perspective might find him.

Her soft voice stopped him in his tracks. "I was wrong. You are merciless."

No power in the world could have kept him from wincing then. But he kept walking. He knew his duty. To his people and to his legacy. Where his heart lay in all that was of no consequence. None, whatsoever.


	7. Chapter 7

The assembly around him argued in a loud and vehement assortment of yowls, hisses and hooting calls. For the most part, he ignored them as he dipped a brush into his bowl of ink. He held his sleeve back with his off hand. An old, beaten book lay open before him, held that way with a heavy golden figurine. With a few masterful strokes, he composed his latest thought in prose-

_'Left with strange bounty._  
_A curse becomes a blessing._  
_Winning a future.'_

With a sigh, he realized the latest questions had been directed at him. He thought back to what they might have been and found that he didn't care. "Lords and ladies of the West, what would you have of me?"

An old boar demon snuffled and grumped, "See, our lord cannot even be moved to satisfy the simplest inquiry."

"Take a care how you speak to this Sesshomaru." He did not have to speak loudly to show how deadly the edge of his temper could be. "Have I not been a good lord? Do you and your peoples not prosper?"

A cacophony of shouts went up after he spoke. Some saying, "We need more territory! Push south-" "No! East!" "Baka, we should war on the North!" Others demanded, "The humans grow ever more insolent! They spread like a wasting disease! What will you do about this!"

Though he did not show it, he despaired for them and their short-sightedness. They had plenty, yet they wanted more. Always more. Even if they owned the whole of the world, they would dig deep and eat its heart, too. He said, with a note of sarcasm, "We war on the East already. Shall we split our efforts on three fronts?"

Byakko, wearing his father's white-striped pelt over green lacquered armor, stepped forth, an ingratiating smile on his tiger's face. He purred as his tongue flicked out to wash his whiskers. "As your general, I would not recommend such a course. Our numbers dwindle. Too many fall and not enough rise to replace them."

This caused a new outcry among the people of his court. Sesshomaru listened with half an ear to problems of which he had already been aware. Low fertility among the pure-blooded along with higher defects from the inbreeding. The search for the virtues of pedigree made his people go to extreme measures. He no longer wondered why there had been no youkai in Kagome's stories of the future. Their very natures made that reason apparent.

But Byakko had another card to play, it seemed. He bowed before his lord and said, "If only Sesshomaru-sama would take a female to wife and whelp on her a litter, then the future of the realm would be secured."

He wanted to laugh. "This Sesshomaru's activities in his bed-chamber are not for you to speculate upon. When I feel the need, then I shall wed and whelp."

"Why the hesitation, my lord?" said a buzzard youkai in the third tier of this round room in which Sesshomaru sat the chair of eminence. Flames licked out of his mouth with every word, "Does it have anything to do with the mysterious boy child you were seen leaving your estate with ten moons ago?"

"Yes! Give us news!" "Who is this pup?" "Whose brat is he?" The shouting fast wore on his nerves, but he kept his serene mask in place.

"If you're seeking a boy, Itsumade, look to your own harem of catamites." In the mocking laughter that followed, Sesshomaru swept his gaze all around the chamber. "Where I go and what I do are my business alone. It is my right and none of yours to question. Any who disagree are welcome to challenge this Sesshomaru for the Western Lands. Singly or all at once, if you so dare. Do not think me unaware of your concerns. Rest assured I will always have my people's best interests in mind."

"But who exactly are your people, my lord? You spend weeks far from your lands. You let the humans encroach on our territories. We heard you even leased them the fertile fields of the Kobe delta." Byakko, always the sly one, genuflected with oily ease, even as his words incited. Sneaky old tiger, using 'our' and 'we' so as to make the source of these accusations vague and unclear. As if the inu lord didn't know.

"Enough." Sesshomaru tested the ink on the page before him to see if it dried and well pleased, closed the book with a snap, tucking it away. He stood and the assembly held their collective breath. "Someone must grow the rice and see to the trusting beasts. If not the humans, then who? Our youths who itch for battle? The lords who encourage them? Perhaps we should focus on breeding, well and diversified, instead of warring for a few generations-"

They didn't even hear his words, so wrapped up were they in who offended who and who deserved to be decimated. He didn't expect them to, in any case. Some habits never change. Saddened, he flared his aura and roared, "Silence!"

He said into the silence that reigned thereafter, "We diminish and refuse to see why. Our society has grown stagnant for lack of outside stimulus. I shall do all that I can, for as long as I can. As I have always done. Use your reason, august beings of infernal might that you are. See to your future or we will soon have none."

Sesshomaru left them then, passing missives to his assistants. Orders for resupply and re-deployment for his troops at the front. Byakko met him in the hall. He eyed the tiger youkai with wary appraisal before nodding a greeting. No, Byakko would not strike yet, not so early in the game anyway.

His general said, "My lord."

"Byakko. I do not suppose you had anything to do with Guhin's betrayal." The unsubtle accusation did not so much as cause a waver in the general's confidence. Sesshomaru applauded the demon his audacity from behind a polite facade.

"I would be a fool to say I had, but no, that baka acted on his own as far as I am aware of."

_Not likely._ But that thought remained locked behind many mental barriers. "I want the mountain tengu to know that their leader's traitorous actions did not go unnoticed. Make an example of a few of them. We need to keep the tribe alive to fill the ranks, do we not?"

"Yes, Sesshomaru-sama." Byakko bowed at the waist with a flourish. Really, the tiger was wasted on the battlefield. He should have been a courtier. As cunning and conniving as any snake in his stable of vipers. The general paused before turning to leave. Sesshomaru gave him permission to speak with a wave of one hand. "Lord, when heirs were mentioned at assembly, I couldn't help but notice a complete lack of worry from your esteemed self. So lacking as to be inverted. Is the legacy secure?"

He debated a moment on his response. Such roundabout inquiries remained pretty standard among youkai, as hiding one's young until they reached maturity tended to be the prevailing fashion. He let a smirk alight on his face and decided on an ambiguous answer that should have the old tiger chasing his own tail for months. "Very. One might say . . . _tremendously _so."

Byakko let drop a salacious wink and purr as he left. Let him think Sessomaru had dozens of whelps out there to succeed him. The longer it took for the general to pinpoint Kenshin's location, the more ready and able the boy would be to defend himself. Demons tended to think in the long term so the probability of Byakko rushing out in force to ransack every ningen village . . . probably dwelt down there at next to nil. Plus, he wouldn't want to draw attention to himself any more than he had to. Such a thing could provoke his lord into taking retribution.

_It'll take years, no doubt._ Sesshomaru hummed a low pleased sound as he exited the courtly wing of his estate and headed into his own modest, personal residence. Jaken rained praises on him from the moment the imp saw him come through the doors. The lord ignored his servant and went to his inner sanctum. With refreshment in the form of rice wine and clean parchment at hand, he set to work. Like all great swordsmen, he took pleasure in out-thinking an opponent, letting his enemy work themselves into a corner before he struck the decisive blow. This game promised to be an interesting one.

He thought long and hard about which strategy to employ and set things into motion with a few short messages. No doubt this plan might take decades to come to fruition, maybe a century. _But what is a century to one such as I. _No time at all. A blink of a golden eye.

He addressed the imp who still waited on his pleasure, "Jaken."

"Yes, Sesshomaru-sama?"

"Would you ever bow to a hanyou master?"

"Sesshomaru-sama! Please do not say such things! I would never want to be brought so low as to be pressed into the service of a filthy half-breed."

"Even if he were worthy?"

The imp stuttered and coughed, disgusted. "I find it hard to believe that such a thing is possible!"

"Hn," he said, copying out the letter to some of his southern governors for information regarding the expansion of human provinces and who led them. It did pay to keep tabs. Maybe he could spot the tipping point before it happened. "Perhaps it is, perhaps it is not."

"Sesshomaru-sama, why the strange questions?"

"No reason that should concern a servant."

Thus rebuked, Jaken slouched in on himself in misery. Despite being loud and prostrating himself to the point of idiocy, Jaken had an eye for survival, Sesshomaru knew. The imp became a virtual weather-vane for how conflicts turned out. Sesshomaru need only look opposite the way the little youkai ran to find trouble. Though, in recent years, Jaken grew something of a backbone. Loyal, but cowardly. The lord could depend on the imp to be consistent in that regard.

"Ready Ah-Un. I go east for the winter. And I wish to take presents."

"Presents? For whom, Sesshomaru-sama?"

"You will find out. Someone must tend the beast, after all."

The way the imp groaned fed a tiny smirk on his lord's face that lasted til long past the first gatepost.


	8. Chapter 8

He tried so very hard to stay away. It didn't help that their two groups seemed to meet at every crossroads. Fate pushed them together in their mutual struggles against Naraku and his abominable minions. Further and further out of his control, his path always led him back here.

Sesshomaru reflected on failing to be the master of his own destiny as he, Rin and Jaken crested yet another hill to find a too familiar sight before them. The nekomata who played companion to the demon slayer raised her feline head and bobbed it in greeting to the demon lord. Rin ran past him to embrace Shippo. The two children laughed and spoke fast-paced to catch each other up on what happened to them while they had been parted.

Miroku, the priest with the ravenous hole in his hand, said, "Won't you join us, Sesshomaru-sama? It is late and there is room."

Unable to help himself, he looked to the miko, whose turned back said everything. A strange, bereft feeling flickered in him. He sublimated it with effort before answering, "The dark hanyou moves on the South. This Sesshomaru has pledged to the Southern lord to assist. I should not tarry."

Inuyasha snorted and laid a glare upon him, full of disdain and impudence. "You heard him. He's too good for the likes of us. Go on, then."

Sango turned a frown on Inuyasha. "Shh! Be polite. He's saved us from death many times."

"As many times as we've done the same for him and his!" Inuyasha shot back, jabbing a talon in the taiyoukai's direction. "But he's never going to admit he needs us. He's never going to say, 'thank you,' is he? Peh!" The hanyou threw his hands into the air.

"Kagome-chan! I was just telling Rin about that story you told me the other night. Won't you please, please, please read it to her?" The fox kit made a show of begging, kneeling in the dirt and wringing both hands together in the air. Rin copied him with comical accuracy and the kit tackled her. The pair wrestled around in a mass of flailing limbs and laughter.

Rin broke away to stand before Sesshomaru, pleading with him with her eyes. "Can Rin not stay to hear these fables, Sesshomaru-sama? Rin promises to be extra good."

As though she'd been bad. He appraised his ward with sharp eye and saw in her a fear of this. Did she think their groups' separation somehow her fault? He'd forgotten that she noticed things, sometimes showing startling insight. If she'd noticed his reluctance to remain near Kagome's pack, no telling what conclusions the child drew on her own. It wasn't fair to her to let her continue believing she caused the rift that divided them.

He dropped a hand on her head and said, "This Sesshomaru will only stay if the miko allows it."

In his periphery, he saw shock ghost over the adults' faces. All eyes turned to Kagome, who finally turned to face him with calm and serene countenance. In a voice, both placid and cheerful, she said, "Of course, he can stay. Far be it for this miko to tell the great lord whether he may stay or go."

Barbed, that remark cut him. He frowned at how he seemed to bleed with no wound. His response, of which he knew he really had none, got cut off by the loud and boisterous exclamations of the pups as they danced in a ring, swinging each other around and singing the miko's praises. When his eye thought to seek her out again, the miko had gone. He breathed deep of the evening air to locate her. She'd not gone far, though, only a few paces outside of the firelight and into the trees.

Sesshomaru debated following her for much longer than he really should have, but decided not to tread those waters if he could help it. As the others made ready to bed down for the night, he pulled the book of poems from his sleeve. He pondered the pages that had wrinkled even more from his frequent handling and the strange metal cylinder that he found out became some sort of writing utensil with a twist. He did this now and turned to a blank page.

Writing with the device felt strange to him, the way he could feel the very grain of the paper with every swipe. Nothing like drawing with a brush. He wrote-

_'Cold hands mean cold heart._  
_A lord must be vicious; cruel._  
_Or so I've been taught.'_

Truth, but an unsatisfying one. It made him wonder if he could ever be more than the sum of his learnings. He flipped back a few pages to read the one of the first he'd added-

_'Strange, scholarly child._  
_Idiosyncratic girl._  
_Frustrating me thus.'_

Sesshomaru sighed and closed the book. A soft voice from above made him look up to see his half-brother lounging on the low branches, "You hurt her."

The taiyoukai readied himself for battle. If the hanyou felt truly incensed, no meager and weak blood-tie would keep him from trying to destroy Sesshomaru. Nor did the lord expect it to.

"I don't know the details, nor do I wanna, but you hurt her," Inuyasha accused, "I told her you would, but she wouldn't listen to me. And now . . .. Well, let's just say the last few weeks have been downright depressing."

"You warned her away from this Sesshomaru and she did not heed?"

"That's what I said, isn't it? Anyway, so now, I appeal to_ your_ common sense, since she seems to have lost hers somewhere near Edo. Stay away from her. Keep to the youkai way. No good can come of it. I mean," Inuyasha said, then swept a hand to indicate himself in self-deprecating manner, "just look at me."

Part of him bridled at the hanyou's presumption. Another heard his own words flung back at him with growing dismay. Yet another, a deeper voice said, _Ningen live close to death every day. They strive and toil to spite it. Does not the book in your pocket prove that they can do wonders? How, then, are they value-less?_

The hanyou spoke on, "Soppy human onna. Mooning over your girlish looks day and night. I mean, what did she see in you anyway? You're such an asshole. It's a wonder she even thought there could be something under all that pompous arrogance. Probably imagined it. Sucks that you proved her right, but at least now she knows, ne? What you see-" Now Inuyasha gestured at him head to toe before finishing, "is what you get. Just a whole lotta asshole."

"You would do well to be quiet," Sesshomaru cautioned, his patience nearing its end.

"Or what? You'll fight me? Keh, as if I'm scared of you. If she hadn't made me swear to keep the peace, I'd be trying to make you eat Tessaiga right now." The hanyou leapt down to stand in front of the seated lord. "You're an idiot if you think hurting my best friend didn't put me in a killing mood. You're lucky she's generous or you'd be wormbait by now."

"Your concern for the miko is noted. This Sesshomaru would not have her harmed further." It shook him how true that statement felt. It pinged off deep places in him, causing dissonance.

Inuyasha looked at him askance. "Good. Keep it that way. And if you're going to stick around this time, take care you don't end up pissing her off. Even I'm scared of her when she's mad."

"Now it seems you are concerned over what might become of_ me_. This Sesshomaru is touched."

"No, no, that's not what I mea-. Just. I want her to be happy, is all." Inuyasha bit his lip and scowled. "For a long while there, it didn't seem like she'd ever be happy again. I had a lot to do with that. Then she was for a bit. And then she wasn't again."

"The hanyou has learned how to take responsibility, then?"

"I own my mess. And I can't go back and fix what's broke. Nor would I. But she knows me. She knows I'm sorry." The hanyou shook out his hair with a grunt. "Hn. For whatever good that does."

Sesshomaru sat in pensive silence as his half-brother walked away. Meanwhile, Kagome returned and sat with the children telling stories til they became too sleepy to listen any more. He found his eye kept catching hers at odd moments and without his meaning to. Though Inuyasha's words still rang in his ears, he found himself trying to devise a way to explain to her his actions. He owed her that much, at least.

_Do I? _The thought blindsided him. He, who never made excuses or ever felt the need to, now sought to earn forgiveness, of all things. The irony struck him then and he snorted to himself in aggravation. For one who expounded the virtues of responsibility to his brother, he sure didn't care to do so himself. Part of taking responsibility is admitting one's mistakes. He started to miss his simple existence of yore, when all that mattered was the strength of his arm and finding victory in his enemy's defeat. Though, then he wouldn't have Rin. Or Bakusaiga. He'd have remained as purposeless as a sword without one to wield it.

His ruminations took him well into the night, and soon he alone remained awake. Sesshomaru could stand it no longer. Something must be done to quell the riotous anxiety within him, even if that meant inviting more turmoil. He withdrew the tome and flipped to his latest haiku. The one about lordship. With hurried hand, he added another in the margin and tore the page free as neat as he could. He then folded it into a paper lily.

Sesshomaru crept to where Kagome lay asleep, her hair spread across her pillow. He had an insane urge to run a hand through that dark mass, but stopped himself from doing something so foolish. The lily he set just under the edge of her covering, then all but ran back to his vacated seat at the edge of the clearing. His thoughts turned to the words he'd added-

_'I might have been wrong._  
_I might have never known you._  
_I might never change.'_

He knew she'd found his message when she pressed a note into his hand as they parted ways the next morning. Sesshomaru spent a long while during the trek just staring at it, the simple folded square of paper. What did she write? Did it contain something to calm and comfort his ceaseless confusion? Or was it something else? A denial or confirmation? Forgiveness? Understanding?

His imagination painted all sorts of fanciful scenarios until he finally unfolded the message and read. His heart grew heavy and dark, thudding from some unnameable feeling. He kept wanting to call it . . . sorrow.


	9. Chapter 9

He lamented the passing of years, as they had the habit of flying by much too quick for his taste. Only in the stolen moments with his progeny did it all slow down enough for him to count. Then he counted every second lost between visits as well.

Sesshomaru forgot how fast youkai pups matured, slower than ningen, but there existed a biological imperative for children of such a volatile race to fast become able to stand on their own. So when five years went by almost without his noticing and he showed up to find a whelp already showing his father's height tussling with Inuyasha in Kaede's yard, he stopped in shock. Where had the stumbling two-year old of his last visit gone?

The demon lord paused under the trees before approaching and just watched, keeping his aura and scent cloaked. The pair cavorted, chasing one another with that mindless joy dogs have, living in the 'now'. Kenshin seemed happy, if the perky set of his ears and the glitter of his blue eyes told a true story. Nearby, the demon-slayer and her husband, the priest, laughed at their antics from the porch, their small ningen children at their feet.

Rin, now a woman, called encouragement from the sidelines. At her side, the kitsune, Shippo, grown tall and lanky, stood with cocky grin plastered across his face. Such a charming domestic scene called to Sesshomaru, starting a warmth in his chest that made him almost wish to leave it untouched. But he knew that it wouldn't stay that way for long. Opposing forces already slithered in the shadows, ready to strike. Time for Sesshomaru to take his son's education in hand.

He decided to let them have another hour of dalliance as he watched, indulging himself as much as they. Suddenly, a presence made itself known to him and his gaze cut to one side to see a face almost identical to his own, only softer and feminine. The last person he'd thought would find this place, or even want to search it out. He nodded and said, soft and careful, "Lady-Mother."

"Sesshomaru," she answered with a regal tilt of her head. Then she chuckled. "Do not look so surprised, my son. I have known of this place since you fought for Rin's soul in Hell. I was curious what could change my son so, or hold his attention for so long. You did get bored so easily when you were a pup."

His head bent to concede to her point and her tenacity.

"I see he bears the mark." She baited him with quirked brow. So that's where he learned it from. One could say all sorts of things with a judiciously tilted brow. How intriguing.

He decided to take control of the conversation. "Have you ever heard the word 'extinction,' lady?"

She volleyed, "Oh, do call me 'kaa-san', like you once did."

Sesshomaru retorted, "This Sesshomaru might think 'babaa' is more appropriate."

"Now that's just cruel," she said, pouting at him, "how did I raise such a heartless boy? 'Old woman', indeed."

"It is from you that I learned heartlessness."

"It is also me that showed you how to take one's heart back."

He smiled a wry smile into her golden eyes. "Not a line will ever grace your face, kaa-san. You will always look as though you sprang from the earth fresh and new at the start of every season."

"Oh, stop." Yet she hid a pleased smile behind her fan. "I should have known flattery lay in your arsenal along with your swords."

"One finds weapons for every arena." He took her hand in his and lay a kiss to her cold palm. "Now this Sesshomaru desires an answer to his question."

"Well, I recall having heard it once or twice. Why do you bring such unpleasantness up? Such a concept reeks of finality."

"A . . . learned onna this Sesshomaru knew once told him about massive beasts that existed millions of years ago. They dominated every other beast of their era, they owned the world. Then the world changed and, unable to adapt, they were sloughed off its skin, never to walk upon it again."

"Hn." Far from stupid, she drew the parallel he knew she would. For it had once been her dream. "Sounds familiar."

"Indeed."

She watched the boy with him and he saw wheels upon wheels turning in her eyes. A dainty finger stroked her bottom lip as she thought. Then she turned a wondering gaze on him. "Oh, my son, you play a deep, deep game."

"How can I not when one's opponent is Death?" He hummed. "Certain things must occur. We must disappear so that the right future happens, but I do not think the world will be done with us just yet. I think we'll be needed again someday."

"And he?" She pointed to his son, who laughed so carefree out there. "Will he know you use him so?"

"Did I? No, I did not see your fingers tangling the skein of my fate until it was already too late. Only, unlike you and my father, I will play it better. I won't fail."

His Lady-Mother looked upon him with awe and a sad smile lit her features. "Yes, my son, I believe you shall. When my grandson is old enough, bring him to me. I have yet a few things I can teach him better than you."

"This Sesshomaru shall do as you say." He bowed to her and when he looked back up, she had gone.

* * *

The boy learned quickly. Already, he'd countered the advance of Sesshomaru's lances. Pretty good, considering the pup had only learned how to play this game in the last week or so. The shogi board lay between them, father and son. The demon lord caught a few shy glances in his direction and admonished, "Concentrate, whelp. Looking at me instead of the board will not help you be victorious."

His son's ears went flat in dejection. A habit that would have to be corrected. Kenshin tapped his fangs with his claws as he focused on the game. Then one ear began to flick with dubious and sly intent. No doubt, the boy had finally spotted the opening Sesshomaru left on his right flank. With a decisive flick, the hanyou pushed his knight forward, forking a bishop and a promoted rook in the process. Then he looked up at his father with a smug smirk and crossed his arms as though to say, _What now, oh, high and mighty Lord of the West._

How unfortunate for the boy that moving that knight opened his king up for check, which Sesshomaru did, gliding his silver-general into position. The jaws of the trap shut. "Ote."

Disappointed, Kenshin conceded defeat and sat, sullen and silent.

Sesshomaru raised a brow at him. No, he would not be allowed to wallow. "Where did you go wrong?"

"I . . . I was too eager, tou-san. And didn't think ahead." Shame colored Kenshin's cheeks in a light pink and his gaze dropped to his own hands where they wrung together on the edge of his jacket.

"Hai. You give yourself away before you even move the pieces. The way you sit, your face, your posture should present a blank slate to all who look upon you. They will think to write their own motives upon it and thereby tip their hand to you." He demonstrated the point with absolute stillness.

"I thought you said to not look at your opponent." A flash of confusion mixed with a tiny touch of anger filled the eyes that flitted up to meet his.

"You listen to your enemy to hear what he does not wish you to do. Then you would be wise to defy him."

"But I thought you were teaching me." The boy's tone said it lacked fairness, not letting him know at the outset what was expected of him.

Very few things in the world possessed fairness. A lesson he'd teach his son very well. "You have learned the moves. Now you must teach yourself with each failure and success."

He watched the boy puzzle this over and felt a flash of pride when Kenshin met his gaze with an understanding beyond his years. "Again?"

"Set up the board, my son." The spark of pride he'd felt before bloomed into full-blown exultation with the next few games. Oh, Kenshin would grow into brilliance. His moves remained raw and untempered, but no longer did he twitch or fret and he watched his father with a keenness that bordered on hostile appraisal. Finally treating his father like an enemy. Good.

And in one audacious move, when the boy captured his gold-general, that serene countenance lifted to his and one brow arched up under the pup's silver bangs. Sesshomaru felt a bubbling laugh rise up in his throat. He stopped it before it could escape, but let himself reach out and tousle his son and heir's curly locks. The boy's face broke out in a wide grin which he answered with a smirk.

"Tomorrow, the sword."

All that careful control shattered and dropped to the wayside as Kenshin leapt to his feet in an excited scramble. "Really?!"

He nodded, then watched the boy sprint away. Excited shouting sounded throughout the priestess' house, followed by the raucous addition of Inuyasha's laughter. If he knew his brother, then the hanyou probably warned Kenshin that he might regret his exuberance by this time next eve. _Probably would, _thought Sesshomaru with a small feral grin.

The fox youkai, who'd been watching them play from the shadows under the house's eaves, approached and bowed with graceful courtesy. Sesshomaru pondered its meaning before nodding in greeting. "Kitsune."

"Sesshomaru-sama." Shippo sat opposite him and picked up one of the shigo pieces. Mysteries lurked in the young demon's eyes and the lord felt a wave of unease for a moment. Until the fox said, "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were setting yourself up to be his foe when he grows up."

"This Sesshomaru is a traditionalist. Should I not wish for my son to surpass me?"

"Only, I know how most youkai do it. Not the fox way. I only would have had to prove myself cleverer."

"And would you have?"

Youki flared on the kitsune's fingers for a moment and Shippo turned the piece in his hand so Sesshomaru could see the kanji on it. _A 'promoted' gold-general? _The letters twisted and writhed so that they almost said 'king' as well. Shippo drawled, "Oh, yeah."

"Your confidence is admirable." Sesshomaru said, amused. "I gather from your tone that you might have _issues_ with what this Sesshomaru hopes to accomplish?"

"You could say that. You could say that no one here wants to see Kagome's kid in trouble. Or hurt. Or . . . killed, even." The fox made his tone flat and threatening in an obliquely non-threatening way. "I'm just saying. I know that pup. I don't think he can be as heartless as you."

"Shippo," He said, taking in the kitsune's shock with hidden amusement. How easy it was to unbalance them with a few well chosen words. If he could find a word that could kill, he'd be tempted to give up the sword forever. He continued, "this Sesshomaru is counting on it."

Later on, inside Kaede's crowded house, Sesshomaru sat at his son's bedside and looked down into the young face that slept such a profound sleep. Would he ever sleep so after he found out what life had in store for him? In his memory, he heard the boy ask-

_"Tell me about my mother, tou-san." Only natural for a child to ask such a thing._

_"She was fair and dark of hair. You have her eyes. She was a powerful miko and slaughtered many enemies." The lonely ache in his chest that had never gone away burned at his heart. "She was young and defiant and . . . and funny. She amused this Sesshomaru on many occasions."_

_"Did you love my mother, tou-san?"_

_His mouth dried and even though he'd told himself that this time of the day, the hour before his child slumbered, he would put aside title and bearing and be father only, he still found it so very difficult to admit the truth. "Hai, Kenshin. She ruled in the court of this Sesshomaru's heart."_

_"Only, uncle said that demons can't love. Is that true?" The boy's eyes, her eyes, looked up at him and seemed to demand truth. How could he deny it?_

_"Once this Sesshomaru had no use for softer emotions like love. It was no weapon he could wield in his hand. But he learned better." He leaned close to Kenshin and hissed, "Love is dangerous. And it is far more so in the hands of the one who possesses it within him than any who would seek to use it against the possessor."_

_He confused the lad, he saw. So he sat back and ruffled the hair that begged ruffling. The boy giggled under his hand. Then he said, "Shippo-kun says that my mother read them stories, he and Rin, when they were pups. Do you know any stories, tou-san?"_

_Sesshomaru sighed and thought back to those days. Then he intoned, "In a faraway war-torn land, there once lived a powerful daimyo named Arthur. And with him, he had a circle of samurai loyal only to his hand . . .."_

Sesshomaru stood and walked back out into the common area. He took the cup Rin proffered with a grateful nod. Inuyasha eyed him from across the fire, but didn't turn his back. Progress. "He sleeps."

"So he does. And soundly, too. Must have gotten bored listening to you drone on and on." It seemed half-hearted baiting at best. The hanyou flicked a lazy ear in his direction and said, "There have been a couple incursions already. I took care of them."

"There will come more."

"Nothing I can't handle." Inuyasha cracked his knuckles in front of him and grinned.

"Still, it is best the whelp get trained as soon as possible. He will have many enemies." _He already does._ Sesshomaru sipped the hot tea and sighed, relaxing a bit.

"I'll make some shinai tomorrow."

"No. I will not have him get used to the weight and heft of bamboo when he should know the soul of steel. Find one for his height."

Kaede looked shocked and muttered, "But he's only a boy-"

Shippo flicked a piece of straw into the cookfire and drawled, "He won't be for long. At his age, I helped fight Naraku. Youkai grow up quick."

The taiyoukai nodded in agreement. "Or not at all."


	10. Chapter 10

Over and over, he read them, but they retained their power despite his best efforts to feel nothing. He tasted ashes as he thought of her answer-

_'Do you think I weep?_  
_Do you think you've broken me?_  
_As if I'd let you._

_Suffer not, oh lord._  
_Stay in your castle of ice._  
_Let pride comfort you.'_

Shame, an emotion with which he'd started to become very familiar, clutched at his innards. He stayed in his lands for a long time after that, brooding. _Sulking, _his inner cynic told him. _Pining, _an even unkinder one chimed in. He had no answer for them, nothing to refute their claim.

He sorted out the mess to the south while skirting well clear the Eastern lands. Rin asked him everyday when they would go back to see the miko and her friends. He didn't know, but he told her the first lie he'd ever told her. "Soon."

Sesshomaru should have known that providence would intervene.

Flying far above the open grasslands adjacent to a swamp, he spotted a battle in progress below. Narrowing his eyes, he made out two figures, one much smaller than the other, fighting a desperate fight against a huge multi-form youkai that resembled a dragon crossed with an octopus. It coiled around the pair at its mercy and tried to dodge in past arrows that sparkled. In alarm, he thought, _Glowing arrows?_

His cloud swerved at his silent command and he dropped lower to see the conflict better. It confirmed his fears. Kagome pit herself and her bow against the monstrous demon, the fox kit at her back. Where the others happened to have got to, he couldn't tell. She held her own fairly well, but even he could see she tired. Blood striped her uniform in a dozen places. Yet, none of that touched the fierce determination on her face. It blazed with it. She snarled as one of her arrows flew into a mad rolling eye. He knew then that she'd lay her life down for the fox kit without hesitation. An angry growl of denial tore itself from his throat.

It shrieked and tossed its head. Sesshomaru grit his teeth and jumped from his cloud, pulled into action by something that welled up from deep within him. The thing couldn't be allowed to harm her further. Bakusaiga appeared in his hand as he plunged hundreds of feet straight down, right into the center of the mass of writhing coils.

Above the howls of the thing, he heard Kagome shout something to him and point. He shook his head at her, not hearing her. In that moment of distraction, a huge section of the beast's body swung around and hit him full in the chest, knocking the wind out of him. He landed amidst the squirming, fleshy tentacles that made up its extremities. They gripped and pulled at him, keeping him from swinging his sword with any sort of effectiveness. Trapped, Sesshomaru felt the bonds holding his beast in check start to unravel.

He didn't want that to happen. Fully manifest, the beast within had trouble being discriminate. Kagome and Shippo could die by his hand and he may not even notice. _No!_

Light burst before his eyes and he found himself staring at a fiery arrow, sunk right where this group of sucking tentacles joined the belly scales. They dissolved from the purifying energies that imbued the arrowhead. Wrenching himself loose, he cut a swathe to where the miko and her kit fended off the worst of the seeking tendrils.

Kagome pulled him to her by his pauldron and shouted in his ear, "The tongue! Shard's in the tongue!"

He took off, leaping high to where that huge maw snapped and threw gobs of saliva to and fro. He sliced through as many of the reaching squirmy appendages as he could on the way to buy the onna behind him some time. The sizzle and stink of decomposing flesh from where his blade touched the demon's flesh reached his ears. There! In the back of its throat, something sparkled.

It saw him! The wild flailing of its head brought its regard upon the inu lord and it opened its mouth wide to devour him. He smirked and swung his sword around, releasing its energy attack right down its throat. Another earth-shaking scream split the air, ringing Sesshomaru's ears. He reached past fangs the length of his arm and grasped the offensive, flopping tongue in one fist and started pulling.

Panicking, it snapped down upon his arm, one long tooth piercing his upper bicep. He hissed and used the pommel of his Bakusaiga to shatter that fang. With a mighty yank, he ripped his prize free. The demon disintegrated before his eyes, becoming just so much dust. He sheathed his sword just as he touched down, the jewel shard in his opposite fist. The bit of tooth embedded in his arm he pulled loose with a grunt of disgust.

"Sesshomaru!" The panic in her voice made him wheel and sprint to where she sat cradling the fox kit in her arms. Something was wrong with the kitsune. A green foam leaked out from between his lips and his eyes, bloodshot, rolled back into his head. "He's poisoned!"

"Where is Inuyasha and the others? Why are you out here alone?" He tried not to think about what might be thundering through his own veins at that moment.

"Too far. There is no time. Take him!" She thrust the boy into his arms. His head lolled limp against his bracers. She shouted, "Find help! Medicine!"

Stunned, he hesitated, looking down into her furious blue eyes. How they sparked with so much anger. How could he just leave her here injured and alone?

She screamed at him, "Go! Damn you! Go! Save him!"

Her voice galvanized him into action. His youki cloud formed at his feet and with one last look at her tear-streaked and bloody face, he took off. The shard he flicked to her. Kagome's hand came out to deftly pluck it from the air. His last glimpse of her, she'd sunk to her knees on the torn turf. She looked so small then. He prayed she found safety before something else came along to kill her.

Healers. He had to find healers. Thoughts that used to run like quicksilver felt slow as treacle. He spotted a temple on the horizon. His limbs felt so heavy, all of him turned to lead, it seemed. _Speed!_ He thought at his youki and saw that far dot grow larger much faster. Barreling at it at breakneck realized he had very little strength left to slow his fall. The cloud dissipated at his feet and he sped through sky on sheer willpower alone.

The roof of the temple rose up beneath him and he had just enough awareness left to curl his body around the small life entrusted to him before he crashed through it. Darkness swallowed him then.

* * *

_Pain! _His first thought, unpleasant though it happened to be, told him that he'd not expired saving a woman who hated his guts.

His second thought rose up in panic, _Kagome! _He sat bolt upright then fell back as agony lanced him like a spear. His whole body swam with tiny stings, but the source seemed to center around his left arm. _Oh no, not again._

With effort, he turned and looked down at his shoulder, followed it past a blood-soaked bandage and felt relief when he spotted his hand, all five fingers intact.

A soft snort from the side drew his attention and he met blue eyes under black bangs. Kagome sat in a chair next to his bed and watched him with tired aloofness. A wry smile lifted a corner of her mouth. "Just checking?"

"Hn." Parched tongue clung to his soft palate. Pulling it free, he licked his lips and managed, "The fox kit."

"Alive. Resting. The monks here had a store of medicines for victims of that monster."

"Is . . . there water?" Even speaking so few words seemed to aggravate the skin inside his throat and he coughed, dry and painful. Someone placed a cup at his lips and he lapped at the liquid with shameless thirst.

When he finished, he leaned back on the plump coverings of the narrow bed someone had laid him in. He looked around for clues as to who lived here and found very little to base any sort of picture on. Ah, that's right. A temple. A place of asceticism.

His eyes snapped back to the miko as she cleared her throat. She smiled a wan little smile at him before saying in a grim tone. "I feel bad for making you fly in your condition. I didn't know you'd been bitten by that thing."

Sesshomaru waved it off. He felt his youki overcoming the last of the toxin, soon it would start to knit his flesh back together. He would be whole in a matter of hours. "It probably saved this Sesshomaru's life as well."

Her eyes flicked away from his in guilt. Then she turned back to him and reached out to grasp his hand. "Thank you, Sesshomaru-sama."

The use of the honorific pricked him, though he knew he deserved her distance. He turned his hand to interlace his fingers with hers. "You are welcome, Kagome."

He felt her hand tremble and released her. She pulled away with a touch of haste and stood, nodding her head to him in respect. As she approached the sliding doors, he called, "Kago-"

"Rin," she interjected, stopping there on the threshold. The miko glanced at him and stroked the doorframe with one finger. She seemed nervous as she continued, "Rin, she, uh, I mean, it's good for her to be around kids her age. Shippo misses her. Kohaku doesn't play with him. Too busy doing demon-slayer stuff and getting revenge on Naraku. I mean, we're all doing that, but, it's just-I-. Oh listen to me, I'm rambling. I mean to say, you're always welcome in our camp. Rin, too. And that Jaken, though he's a pain in the ass." With that she bowed to him and said from under her bangs, "I don't know how to express how grateful I am you saved Shippo."

Just as the door shut, he whispered, "I did it for you."

Was it just his imagination or did that door pause just a hair before clicking closed? He sighed and closed his eyes, feeling truly weary for the first time in ages. Then his golden orbs snapped open and he said, with a touch of annoyance, "Where are this Sesshomaru's clothes?"

He cast about for them, but didn't see them laid out anywhere. Perhaps they lay in the wardrobe in the corner. On the arm of the chair the miko just vacated, he saw a familiar brown hidebound book. He reached for it and pulled it to him. Now a touch of embarrassment ghosted up his spine as he thought of her reading his ramblings. He flipped it open to find that his marker had been moved. Under the silver writing utensil, he read the haiku she must have stumbled upon. The back of his neck grew hot as the words leapt out at him-

_'The winter lies deep._  
_It fills me and binds my heart._  
_She is the summer.'_

Seems he was found out. Sesshomaru thought about how she might have taken it. What she might have thought. It worried him a tad. Then he remembered that instead of mockery in her face and words, she'd welcomed him back into the fold. Perhaps she didn't detest him all that much then? The familiar unsteadiness filled him with nervous energy. But with it something else, something like hope.


	11. Chapter 11

From Sesshomaru, the boy learned technique. From Inuyasha, he learned creativity. Between the two of them, Kenshin became adept at swordplay within the next six years, enough that his father no longer worried about the random demons that stumbled upon Sesshomaru's secret. Only time would give Kenshin the mastery the inu lord practiced with ease.

An ease that once again landed the boy in the dirt on his rump. Sesshomaru held his sword at Kenshin's throat. "You are dead."

Kenshin flashed a resentful eye up at his father. "It's not fair. You don't even give me a chance."

"Would any who came upon you intending to kill you?" Sesshomaru sheathed his sword and gestured. "Up."

The hanyou stood, automatically falling into the ready stance. Sesshomaru saw, with approval, the hunger to vanquish his father ride high in those blue eyes. "Why do you wait?"

"You don't have your sword out."

"Never let opportunity slip away. There is no such thing as honorable combat." The words hadn't quite left his lips when the boy decided to take action. The lord dodged a lunge and jumped back a few paces. Kenshin charged him, notched blade already swinging down to stove in his father's skull. He could see no fault in the attack, but . . .. In a single sweep, Sesshomaru drew and cut. The boy's sword whined as it split in half. The taiyoukai tilted his head a fraction to let the point fly past him. He heard rather than saw it sink into the bark of a tree behind him.

Kenshin looked at his sundered weapon with dismay. Only three inches of steel had been left to him above the tsuba.

Sesshomaru said, "Be wary the one who comes to battle with sheathed sword. He knows something you do not."

Awe shined up at him from his son's eyes, filling him with a warmth that he dared not show. Kenshin laughed and said, "Show me?"

Sesshomaru smirked. "The draw cut _is_ powerful. Plus, it seems we need to find you a proper blade. Tomorrow, I will show you battōjutsu, the art of drawing the sword."

The pup threw a fist in the air and crowed, "Yes!"

It seems he learned such unseemly exuberance from Inuyasha. Or inherited it from his mother. Either way, Sesshomaru didn't begrudge the boy his joy, though it would be nice to see some seriousness. The boy settled down under his stare, as though aware of his disapproval of such boisterous behavior. "Now we play shogi to see what you've learned about cunning."

The grin on the pup's face resurfaced. "Uncle won't play me any more. He thinks I'm cheating."

"Subtlety is lost on those who have none. Come." He led them to their customary bench for such an activity and sat.

Kenshin set up the board and moved first. Silence reigned as the pair concentrated on their match. "Tou-san."

"Yes, Inu-Kenshin?"

"Uncle says there have been lots of attacks out in the West. Youkai razing whole villages."

"This Sesshomaru is aware."

The boy seemed to struggle with his next question, confusion filling his features. "Why do they do that?"

"Hn. Youkai are strong. Ningen are weak. It has always been this way." Sesshomaru hummed as he advanced a flank on the board. In his mind, he smiled to see the first tiny blossoming of long-laid plans.

"But . . .."

"Speak, boy, if you have something worth saying."

Kenshin frowned at that toneless rebuke and said, "Aren't you their lord? Can you not stop them?"

"Could I? Surely. Should I? That is not so clear." The taiyoukai waited for the boy to take the bait. "Will I? No."

Never one to disappoint, Kenshin burst out with, "But it's not right! Youkai shouldn't just be able to kill humans just for being weak."

"But they do. In droves." A bare statement of fact that made his son quiver in indignation.

"What have they done to deserve such slaughter?"

"Nothing." He played out the word like it meant there didn't have to be a reason.

"Someone should stop them!"

"Who?" Polite interest, only, seeped from his words and Sesshomaru could tell it fanned the fires of rebellion within the half-grown hanyou.

"Someone strong. Someone who can stand up to them!" Kenshin thrust a pawn forward and glared at his father. "Someone like you!"

"This Sesshomaru is much too busy administering his lands and tending to the war with the North to see to every disgruntled youkai in his domain or every beleaguered ningen." He shrugged one shoulder in elegant dismissal.

"What if it happened here? To Kaede? Or Rin?" So the boy would appeal to him for those to whom he felt ties. A time-honored strategy. It might be more effective if the lord didn't already have layers of protection around this one small village. Mostly in the form of this boy's uncle and his friends. But Kenshin didn't need to know that.

Sesshomaru shook his head. "I have no power over the youkai of the East."

"Then I'll do it!"

"Will you, pup?" Sesshomaru let scorn touch his words, just the most subtle hint of it. "Can you?"

The boy heard the scorn and resented it. So eager to show his capability. "I can! What have I been learning the sword for if not to use it?!"

"To be this Sesshomaru's heir. All I have taught you is not to be wasted chasing bandits and rogue demons." He planted the suggestion so carefully and wanted to crow to see it take hold in the light of the boy's eyes. Truly, being a parent was a delicate dance. Say one thing and they will, with defiance, do the very opposite. To push them in one direction meant warning them away from it. Strange how the calculation he'd learned at court came in handy now.

"It's not a waste," grumbled Kenshin, looking up at him with wounded reassessment. Sesshomaru had just lost his godhood in the boy's estimation. Thus are the dreams of youth crushed.

"Let there be no more talk of such foolishness." Sesshomaru wanted to squeeze the boy's shoulder and take it all back, but there could be no softness with so much on the line. What would the boy think if he knew the lord might have had something to do with those attacks, might have prodded and suggested to certain youkai that some villages lay undefended? Then, he knew, that disappointment so etched on the boy's face would fast turn to hate. Hate might come, but not until much later, when it suited his purposes.

Kenshin's eyes dropped into his lap and his face filled with thoughts and doubts.

Sesshomaru drew his son's attention back to the board. The inu lord said, "It's your move."

That sentence rang true on multiple levels, but the boy gave no sign that he'd heard.

_It is almost time for Kenshin to meet the Lady-Mother. He needs to learn intrigue and how to understand the smoke and mirror thoughts of ancient youkai lords, _Sesshomaru mused as he played shogi with his whelp. Plans within plans within plans. How they wheeled in his mind. Would Kenshin ever unravel them? The inu lord hoped so. For all their sakes.

He stayed outside til well after the others had retired for the evening and spoke to the air, "Our son is so strong, Kagome. He makes this Sesshomaru proud. Would that you could see him grow. Forgive me for all I do to him in his shaping."

Thoughts of her filled his mind, trying to picture her in his mind among the tall dwellings she'd told him of.

"Don't you ever sleep?" Inuyasha plopped to the ground at his side, near but not too near as to be seen as threatening.

"Only when this Sesshomaru cannot avoid it. There is much to be done."

"You're just sitting here, though. Not like you're actually doin' anything."

"Says the unobservant one. I am doing more just sitting here than you did all day."

"How so, oh mysterious one?" jibed the hanyou. Sesshomaru favored his brother with an enigmatic smile. Inuyasha snorted. "Fine. Keep your secrets."

"I shall," said the lord in a tone bordering on flippant. After a long pause, he said, "Take him with you."

"Feh. Like I need your permission. I was gonna anyway. He's ready." The hanyou scratched at his belly and swiveled his ears in idle directions. "We could use another sword. Since Sango's on momma duty, it's just been me and Kohaku and Miroku, when that priest can pry himself away from his wife's loving arms. With demon attacks on the rise, we need the help."

"Speaking of swords, this Sesshomaru would have you find Totosai on your travels. It is past time for the boy to have a proper weapon."

"Not going to give him either of yours, huh? Stingy dog."

Sesshomaru considered his brother's words. He'd never thought of that. But not Bakusaiga. The inu lord would no sooner lose his soul blade as be parted from his life. "He may have Tenseiga. In case either of you fools fall in battle."

"Keh!" spat Inuyasha. Then he shot a sly look at Sesshomaru. "I see Rin's been making googley eyes at Kohaku. Is there a wedding in the works?"

"Rin is a woman grown. She can make her own choices. If she wants to brood a passel of demon-slayer brats, she may. It is past time for her to have a life of her own." Sesshomaru ignored the pang that ran through him then. Time truly swept by at a cruel sprint.

"Poor Shippo thought for sure she'd pick him. Silly kit." The hanyou laughed, not unkindly. Then he turned a questioning stare on the taiyoukai. "How come you've never asked when Ken's night of weakness is?"

Sesshomaru shrugged. "It holds no importance for me. Also, I would not wish to know it, in any case. Nor have it widely spread."

"Just seems like something a father would want to know. Tch. Doesn't really matter, I guess."

Weeks later, when he received a missive at his house concerning the eradication of a whole clutch of spider youkai at the hands of some mysterious hanyou youth with silver hair, his hands gave a slight tremble. Bittersweet feelings of remorse and joy flowed into him. Joy for his son's first cutting of his teeth. And terrible remorse for the loss of innocence.

Face serene as ever, he turned to his advisors and innocently asked, "Was it that Inuyasha?"

"Our scouts say the lord's bastard half-brother was there and accounted well for himself in the battle, but that the group was led by this new upstart." Shishi, the lion-dog youkai growled. "Lord, do you have any knowledge of this hanyou boy? He favors your house in appearance."

"Am I to keep track of all my family's by-blows, then?" He dropped the parchment to the floor, as if it did not have anything to do with him. With studied nonchalance, he said to all ears present, visible and hidden, "Surely, it is no large task to see to one hanyou? Don't waste my time with trivialities."

And so, he sends his people against his own son. Kami grant the boy fortitude. _He will need it._

Sesshomaru entered his own study to see a strange cloaked and hooded apparition seated on his cushions at his writing desk. Suspecting imminent attack, the inu lord's waited, already calculating angles and advantages. The stranger held up one hand to halt him. "I do not seek harm, Sesshomaru, inu lord of the West."

"Perhaps I do. Especially to one so bold as to intrude on my private quarters. Maybe such insolence could only be answered with your death." His words bought him time to try to suss out the man's intentions and true nature. He breathed deep to catch a scent and found none. None whatsoever. The stranger may as well not exist. He seemed so 'not there' that a shiver ran up the lord's spine.

The man or youkai lifted his head and Sesshomaru found himself staring into a hideous countenance. Long hooked nose over twisted scowling mouth. The glitter of one eye speared him from deep in the intruder's cowl. Then the lord saw that his guest wore a mask.

Sesshomaru demanded, "Who are you?"

"Don't you mean, 'What am I?' I can feel your confusion from here. Well, I can allay your fears. What I am, is inconsequential. I am merely a hermit."

"The one-eyed hermit who came to this house 14 years ago?"

"The same." The self-styled hermit bowed low. "And I know what you have done for your son."

"Then I should kill you now." He readied himself to do just that, but felt the icy touch of intrigue stay his hand. Something uncanny occurred here. He would know what it is.

The hermit seemed to read his mind. How could he be so transparent to this creature who didn't know him? The masked man said, "Maybe. But then I could not assist you."

"First, tell me this. How did you bring my son through the closed portal of time?"

The stranger spread his hands. "Persons struck a deal with ancient ineffable powers, as all things of this nature tend to come about. And no, before you ask, it is not possible to re-open it. You will have to meet her again by taking the long route."

His guest again showed startling insight. The thought had only just struck Sesshomaru. "Hn."

"Give Totosai this ingot." A lump of metal landed on his writing desk with a ringing thud. Its resonance felt strange and potent. "Tell him only that he will know what to do with it when the time is right."

"And when will that be?"

"When your son breaks Tenseiga in two." The hermit went to the window and paused. "Do not scowl so. Many things will be broken in the years to come."

Then the stranger leapt out and said over his shoulder. "I am Amanojaku! We will meet again."

Sesshomaru briefly considered pursuing the masked man, but thought better of it. Seems other powers were interested in his doings. So be it. If they come to challenge him, he would be ready. Til then, his plans moved forward. Ever onward. Too late to stop now.


	12. Chapter 12

He should not let the child do this. No ningen should ever be allowed to . . . _handle_ a youkai lord. But her hands were clean and he didn't care to do it himself. Sesshomaru sat in absolute stillness as Rin ran her fingers through his long silver hair, untangling it with gentle and persistent care. The girl smelled of lye and some kind of floral fragrance from the bath that Kagome gave her at the nearby hot springs. No doubt some kind of soap she brought with her from the other side of the well. Kagome bathed often and the others of her pack had taken it up as well. Sesshomaru pondered the idea of having found himself among the cleanest group of ningen in the whole of Japan. He felt a bit grateful for that. To not be subjected to the offensive stink of the unwashed.

His eyes closed in appreciation as Rin started to work loose the knot that had pulled at his scalp all day. He stifled a wince as she got hung up on a snag. A whiff of the miko's scent approaching made him crack open his eyes again to see her crouch down next to Rin. She had in her hands another strange invention of her era, no doubt. It resembled a paddle with many spines jutting out of one side, like porcupine quills. All of a uniform length.

Asking her permission with a look, he held out a hand. She put the paddle into it. Sesshomaru examined it, with a thoroughness that rivaled that of when he checked over his weapons for damage. The handle felt worn and smooth, made of some material that didn't smell like wood, though someone had painted tiny stripes in it like they meant it to appear as such. The bristles felt stiff, but smooth under one questing finger. Some sort of animal hair. Boar, maybe. Or horse. He handed it back to her with a small frown.

She smiled and said, gesturing toward his hair, "May I?"

Sesshomaru nodded and settled into his stoic trance once more.

At the first swipe of that device through his locks, he wanted to melt into the ground in pleasure. Its bristles scratched at his scalp with the perfect amount of friction to make tingles shoot up and down his back. With half an ear, he heard Rin ask, "What shall Rin do now?"

"There's a comb in my pack. Front pocket, the zippered one." When the girl came back, Kagome said, "You get the left side and I'll get the right."

"Oi! How come you never brush my hair?" Inuyasha called from where he rested against a tree.

Kagome replied, "We tried that once, remember? You couldn't hold still and it ended up even more tangled than ever."

The hanyou scratched his chin and yawned, "Oh yeah. You had to cut the brush out. I still have a bald spot there. Good thing it was at the nape."

Sesshomaru tried not to feel alarmed at this. He did not want anyone to shear away his hair. There didn't seem to be a danger of that, though and the long strokes felt so very soothing. "Is this Sesshomaru's stillness of acceptable levels?"

The miko giggled. "Can you _be_ any more still? I swear, sometimes, you're like a statue. I have to watch real close to tell whether or not you're still breathing."

He couldn't resist teasing. "Do you watch this Sesshomaru that closely often?"

The brush paused in its strokes, as did the comb. He heard his ward climb to her feet and say, "Rin will go play with Shippo now. Before Kagome-chan reads the animal stories."

That left him alone with the miko in a situation that seemed to grow more and more intimate by the second. Every moment that went by made him increasingly nervous. The taiyoukai wondered how to break the tension without betraying himself and felt a rush of relief when she did it for him.

"There's still dried blood in here from earlier. How can you stand to just leave it?" Her voice held a note of fussy recrimination in it that almost made him smile.

"Battle tends to be messy. This Sesshomaru knew that Kagome would want to camp at the nearby springs for the night. I will wash it once it is untangled." A not so subtle hint that she should keep brushing it. He sighed when the strokes resumed. That really did feel wonderful. Enough to make the dog in him want to roll over and beg for a belly scratch. Not that he would ever do such a demeaning thing. But still . . ..

"You haven't yet? But there's no sweat on you."

"Youkai do not perspire unless they have a sickness or when-" he cut himself of before finishing that sentence. He didn't dare hope she'd forgotten that there had been a moment when he had sweat. When _they _had sweat. His memory fed him an image of entwining limbs and the taste of her. He resisted the urge to clear his throat as he deflected, "It was not a hard fight."

Just her hands on him made the small hairs on his arms prickle and his heart race.

Then she stood away with a whispered, "Done."

All good things must come to an end, he supposed. The taiyoukai stood in one smooth motion and glanced at her over his shoulder. "This Sesshomaru is grateful, Kagome."

With that, he headed to the spring to bathe. And calm his rushing blood.

The evening went as most did. He completed his ablutions and sat back at camp to hear and listen to them as they conversed and did other comforting familiar things around him. He realized then that he'd missed it. But as always, midnight found him alone, awake and out in the forest thinking. He smiled as Kagome found him as he'd an inkling she might and turned to welcome back her company. Another thing he'd felt the lack of.

She seemed a tad skittish as she sidled up to him. Awkward with some hidden emotion, she said, "Nice night."

"Hmm."

"What was that?" she said, with creased brow and a half-smile.

He arched a brow at her.

"That sound. 'Hmm.' I haven't heard that one yet. Usually, it's just a 'hn.'" The short grunt he used to condescend sounded strange coming from the miko out of context.

"I was agreeing. It is a 'nice' night." He clasped both hands behind his back and marveled at how it still felt strange to be able to do so. "A very . . . nice night."

She chuckled at his attempt to stick to harmless pleasantries when there happened to be this huge thing between them that neither wanted to bring up. But be she ever so brave, Kagome dove in headfirst with enviable lack of fear. "You know, it's not generally considered polite to do that to a girl. Take her virginity, then ditch her alone in some field."

"I agree. It was unconscionably rude." His dry words stoked the fire in her eyes. Before she could blow up, Sesshomaru stepped closer and bent down to look her in the eye. "This Sesshomaru never meant to cause you distress. He never meant to find beauty in the ningen girl from the future. He never meant to come to care for her."

"And does he? Care for her, I mean?" Her eyes threatened to swallow him whole. He felt like that might not be so bad, should it come to pass. For then, he could dwell forever in their ocean.

"You read the haiku. Did you read them all?"

Her breath hitched in her throat. In a very small voice, she said, "Yes."

"I wrote another." He longed to breathe deep of her scent, as it tantalized his senses with in teasing tendrils. Sesshomaru took her hand and lifted it palm side up. In it, he set a paper crane. "Would you like to read it?"

With fingers that shook, she unmade the little bird and read aloud-

"What is this feeling?  
Did I breathe before we met?  
Or learn how to since?'"

Sesshomaru drank in her flushed cheeks, quivering lips and shining eyes. He found it hard to breathe all of a sudden as he waited for her to speak. To say something, anything.

Kagome held the paper to her chest and dabbed at her eyes. Then she swiped her bangs aside in a violent motion and peered up at him. "How do I know you won't just run off again? Once you've come to your senses?"

He frowned. "Once I've 'come to my senses'? Onna, do you believe there's something about you that should deter me?"

"Oh, I don't know, maybe that you're a demon and I'm just a silly human girl?" She threw her hands up in the air and cast her gaze at different bits of ground at their feet.

"I believe we resolved the 'girl' part when last we met under the night sky." His attempt to make light rewarded him with one of her light laughs. Then, he took her chin in his hand and made her turn her face back to him. "This Sesshomaru won't lie. It is hard for him to accept this thing he once thought aberrant and perverse."

"Smooth. Puts it right up there on par with beastiality. That makes me feel soooo much better." Her mouth did a wry twist that made him hurt to see. A bitterness that he must be part responsible for that shouldn't exist at all.

"Kagome, calm yourself and let me make myself clear." Sesshomaru leaned even closer and put his lips right to her ear. "I am done with happy accidents. Anything this Sesshomaru chooses to do from now on, he does with deliberation and intent. And this, I choose to do."

She seemed stunned as he leaned away. Then he took a step back to let her breathe. Kagome blinked and looked away for a moment, staring out over the misty landscape with its shadowy trees.

He startled her again by saying, "Your story was wrong."

Distracted, she shot him a puzzled frown and said, "What?"

"The one you told the kit and Rin. The one about the kitsune and the grapes."

"Oh! One of Aesop's fables. Wait, what do you mean wrong?"

"Yes, Aisopos. My father, the Inu No Taisho, he knew that ningen. He told me many stories of the aged human's crafting." He sat on a fallen log and invited her to do the same. "Would you like to hear the version he told me?"

Kagome smiled and nodded.

The lord composed himself and began, "In a faraway land, where men of reason do battle against unreason, there lived a kitsune of arrogant and brash demeanor. He hungered, but for what he did not know until an old trickster named Amanojaku, upon meeting at a crossroads, told him about the existence of a pound of flesh, so rich and red that it is said to slake one's hunger for a thousand years.

"This kitsune demanded the location of such a morsel, saying, 'No one is more deserving than I.' Shown the way by the all too helpful Amanojaku, the fox soon espied it, hanging from a tree of all things. He thought to himself, well, whoever put it up there surely must not want it and also, no one is more deserving than this kitsune.

"He leapt, but some villainous agency pulled it just out of reach. Only then did he see that old trickster who helped him hiding in the upper branches, dangling the flesh from a fishing pole. Amanojaku laughed to see the kitsune leap thus and dipped the meat temptingly before the fox's nose many times just to see him dance. The fox whined and begged and pleaded for just a bite of that rarity that dripped fat, juicy drops of delicious blood onto his snout. Amanojaku jeered and said to the fool, 'Say you are lower than worms. Say that you are less than offal and this Amanojaku will give you your treat.'

"But ever prideful, the kitsune could do anything but that and though his belly yearned and shrieked for him to give in, he slunk away and said," Sesshomaru leaned in close to Kagome, whose entranced eyes followed him and widened as he revealed his hunger to her. He felt rather than heard her pulse pick up and thunder in the space between them. It ran counterpoint to his own mad heartbeat as he concluded, voice dripping with want, "I do not _want_ that rich, red meat. I will _never_ want that rich, red meat."

She took a shaky breath. He watched the tendons in her slender white neck flex and writhe. How he wanted to bury his mouth there and lick a path down between her breasts and further. Kagome slid her hand up to cup his face, he leaned into it and licked her wrist. Voice high and breathy, she said, "Slow, this time, yes? You overwhelm me."

With regret, he sat upright again and took a steadying breath himself. "That would be . . . wise. I would have you know, though, Kagome, I will never let pride stand in the way of what I want again."


	13. Chapter 13

A decade. Then two. He followed Kenshin's prolific career as a demon-hunter with interest. From afar, of course. It would not do to make the boy feel like his father loomed over his shoulder. Let him feel free, let him grow into his own person. Give him some seasoning on the field of battle. Kenshin knew the steps, now he must teach himself how to be artful.

He locked himself into his study so no one could hear him chuckle over the casualty reports that arrived on his desk weekly.

At the same time, Sesshomaru began a list of his own and some on it did become casualties whenever the lord could arrange it. If Byakko and the others suspected a deeper scheme, they never let on, though their lord kept a close eye on them. He heard them curse his son often enough. Calling him and his uncle 'those inu bastards', or 'hanyou dogs'. And darker, uglier invectives, as well. Some surprised him with their creativity. He allowed himself a touch of pride for how his son had gotten under their skins with such laughable ease.

With a stylish flourish, Sesshomaru signed an order that would send more youkai into his son's path. It might as well be an execution order. But these demons didn't play nice with each other or their ningen pets. They'd been given many chances to prove themselves worthy. Those failures would not be missed.

Jaken stood at his door and called in soft and nervous tones. "Sesshomaru-sama?"

"Yes, servant?"

"Your . . . guest is here. He's causing quite a disruption among the staff."

"Send him to me, then empty the residence for two hours. Not a single footfall or eavesdropping maid will disturb us."

"But Sesshomaru-sama-"

"Shall I kick you through the walls, Jaken? I seem to recall a great fondness for doing so."

The imp scrambled away with fearful haste. Sesshomaru smiled an evil smile.

He heard the priest approach long before he stood at the study door. The tap and jingle of his staff rang through the house. The ningen's divine aura penetrated the door. No wonder his servants had been on edge. They had no wish to be purified. "Priest Miroku, come in."

The human, his hair already turning grey at the temples, slid the door aside and stuck his head him, an ingratiating smile on his face. It sought to disarm, but Sesshomaru was not fooled. The ningen said, "Sesshomaru-sama, I came as soon as I got your message."

"No, you did not. You took your family to a secure hold in case this Sesshomaru had . . . _designs_." His amusement stayed hidden.

"Well, you can't blame me for being cautious. Shippo mentioned you might be up to something."

"How could this Sesshomaru blame you for being wise? I am up to many things." The lord waved at the cushion opposite him and poured the priest a cup of tea. With his own hand. "I call you here for one such thing."

The priest sat and sipped, showing trust. The lord appreciated that. He had no plans to harm any of the people Kagome loved. Quite the opposite, in fact. Miroku sat back and eyed him. "So, why am I here?"

"Too fast. First, I would hear of my son."

The man's face lit up, as though the hanyou were his own son. "Kenshin is good. No, he's great. He tore the Wolf Lords up north a new asshole last week. They'd been stealing women, he said. And kids. Little spitfire, that one."

"You were not with him?"

"No, I retired. I'm getting to old to go running up and down the mountains any more. Plus, with the kids getting older and Kaede passing on, Sango needed more hands at home. Kohaku still runs with him, though. And your brother, of course. Merry little pirates, they."

"Inuyasha will be young for a long time yet. I, myself, am not even middle-aged at half a millennium. My mantle fell to me when I was very young."

"And you wear it so well."

"There is no need to flatter this Sesshomaru."

The priest laughed it off. "Well, anyway, Kenshin found himself a friend on his adventures. An flying umamata named Honsho. He'd let that boy ride him into Hell if he wanted, so loyal a horse I have never seen."

So his son had a mount? Good. Some companionship would do him good. His pragmatic side factored in how much more effective Kenshin would be now with such a conveyance.

"There's also a, uh . . .." The hesitation in Miroku's voice focused his attention on the ningen. He waved for the human to continue. Miroku stuttered, "I, um, don't think I should b-be the one to tell you this. There's a-a-"

"Say it."

"A girl. There's a girl. Kenshin likes her a lot."

"Ningen?" Curious.

"No, she's another hanyou. Her father was Hakutaku."

Interesting. Sesshomaru rubbed his chin as he thought. Hakutaku, he hadn't heard that name since his childhood. The Spirit Lion had been mighty. It took an alliance of all four taiyoukai to take him down, his father included. "Any child of Hakutaku's would not be a 'girl'."

"Well, your brother and son found her locked in some ice caves. Apparently, she'd been in there for six hundred years. Hadn't aged a day. Kenshin was smitten the moment he first laid eyes on her. One swipe of Tenseiga and she revived." Miroku laughed and spread his hands. "Boys."

"Indeed."

"Always so eager to taste that first ripening berry . . .." The priest's eyes went misty, no doubt recalling many such snatched berries.

Sesshomaru wrinkled his nose and said with sarcasm, "_Do_ go on."

His sharp tone shook the priest out of his daydreams. "Sorry, Sesshomaru-sama. Anyway, that's about it, really. He's happy, healthy. And busy. Never an idle moment."

Good. That's as it should be. Sesshomaru drank his tea and then set it down. "This Sesshomaru would have you tell him everything you know about demon-binding."

Miroku coughed on the tea he'd just inhaled, spitting and hacking. The lord reflected that perhaps he should have waited for the priest to finish drinking before hitting him with such a query. Once Miroku finished spluttering, he managed a strangled, "What?"

"I believe you heard me."

"I did hear . . . something. I just thought I'd hallucinated it." The priest pushed his cup away and peered at the lord who sat across from him. "Why?"

"Payment for the rug you just ruined, perhaps?"

"Oh, no. No. You're not putting that one on me. I wouldn't have wasted perfectly good tea if you hadn't temporarily gone insane. You know I can't tell you that. It's a jealously guarded secret. I'd get lynched by every priest in Japan!"

"And if this Sesshomaru swore to never reveal what he learned?"

The priest ticked a finger back and forth. "Nuh-uh, not good enough."

"Perhaps a trade, then. You tell me your most jealously guarded secret and I will tell you mine. Same terms. Never to be revealed directly." He leveled a candid stare at Miroku, who blinked and shook his head as though to clear his senses.

The ningen considered him for a long time, biting his lip. "You gotta give me more than that. For all I know, your deep, dark secret is you like to dress in lady's underthings and dance down at the local brothel."

From his sleeve, Sesshomaru drew a slip of paper, yellow from age and worn along the creases. He'd read it many times. More than he could count. He passed it to Miroku. "On the day Kenshin was left on my doorstep, he had this with him. See how it is written in her hand and-"

"I don't doubt its veracity, lord. Only your intent." The priest lay the paper flat on the desk and looked at it with sullen eye.

"There where she's written about strange happenings? She would not mention a thing like that unless she suspected a supernatural agency. I think something happens in the future. Something dire."

Miroku waved his hands. "Look, even if so, you and yours can just wait around and find out what it is, right? That's the benefit of millennia-long lifespans, ne?"

"Think, priest! In any of her stories, did she mention the presence of youkai? Only when jewel shards are involved. Where are my people, Miroku?" He showed his concern to the man with a crinkling of his brow and a slight grimace. "Do not say that they are hiding. No youkai could remain so cowardly as to stay in the shadows indefinitely. I have thought long and hard about the why of my existence. The existence of youkai, period. All beings fill a niche. Is our niche only to be powerful? No, this Sesshomaru believes youkai fulfill a function. They balance things somehow. Or else, why do we prevail?"

"These are questions to which I have no answer, lowly priest that I am."

"Follow this Sesshomaru's thoughts. The youkai do_ not_ disappear from all over the world. They remain in power. The huge cities Kagome spoke of never get built. The histories do not roll out the way she described. There is no Tokyo. No school for her to go to. No little white house with green shutters. No abandoned and boarded up well. No Kagome!"

"So . . . you _want _the youkai to disappear?" ventured the baffled priest.

Sesshomaru fought hard not to roll his eyes. How did ningen get around with those tiny brains of theirs? "Yes."

"Wow."

"I have shown you mine. Now show me yours."

"I must say, this is the last thing I ever expected from you. Turning on your own kind and all."

"I do this _for_ my kind. All our kinds."

Miroku flapped his hands at the warning glare the taiyoukai gave him. "Fine, fine. Okay, here it is, then. Binding a demon takes three things: a prayer slip inscribed with the demon's true name, a totem into which to bind him, and something he truly treasures. Last bit's simple. They usually treasure only themselves."

Sesshomaru blinked. "That's it?"

"Oh, yeah. Demon-binding is easy. We do it all the time. Easier than exorcism."

"Why all the mystery, then?" He'd expected much more. A solstice ritual, the blood of a hundred calves, that sort of thing.

The priest chuckled. "Basic rule of chicanery. Make something seem near impossible and you can charge more for it."

The taiyoukai shook his head and smirked. The creativity of ningen, indeed. "This Sesshomaru assumes only priests can do the binding?"

"Priests, miko, anyone who can get in touch with the divine, which is more people than you think."

That indeed made things easier. Sesshomaru looked at the man with arched brow. "I propose an alliance of sorts. This Sesshomaru would have his people preserved against the coming conflict. I will get you your 'treasured things' to use against the worthier ones and you will push your brothers and sisters of the cloth into moving against the youkai. Binding would be preferable to destroying in this case."

"Oh, yeah? And why would I do that?"

"Imagine. A world free of youkai for the next five hundred years. What could ningen accomplish in that span? When the youkai come back, this Sesshomaru does not believe that they will find the subjugation of the human race so easy. Peace for you and your children. No fear of random dragons falling from the sky. And who knows, maybe peace after, between our two peoples."

"I warn you, a demon bound is much diminished. Sucks their powers away." Miroku narrowed his eyes and said, "Do you think you could handle not being the 'Killing Perfection'?"

"Priest, I doubt I will even live to see the day."

"Hmph. Kagome will be disappointed."

"She will have our son, if all turns out right."

"So as far as deep, dark secrets go, that was a doozy."

Sesshomaru turned an amused eye on Miroku. "That was not the deepest, nor the darkest."

"Oh?"

"No. This Sesshomaru will use his own son to do this." He closed his eyes against the horror he saw in the priest's gaze. "Even if it means breaking his heart."


	14. Chapter 14

Bakusaiga sang as it sliced through the air, a familiar melody that always had the power to ground and center him. Sesshomaru flowed through katas that felt so natural as to be written into his bones. They may as well be. He moved from one style to the next without pause or consideration. Just feeling the heft of the blade in his hand as an extension of his spirit. He alternated between attacks meant for single combat and those for dealing with hordes. At times, his youki flared out in the shape of his poison whip to snap at invisible enemies.

He ended on a lightning quick arc that spun him on one foot.

A whistle from the side drew his attention to his audience. Kagome and her companions, standing under some low branches watching him practice. Shippo said, "Wow!"

"Show off. Waking us up at the crack of dawn with his damn noise," grumbled Inuyasha, his arms crossed over his chest. "So he can dance. Big deal." The hanyou turned his nose up and stalked off. The others drifted off in his wake, one at a time until only the miko remained.

Sesshomaru sheathed his sword and approached her. She smiled up at him and gestured that they should go after the rest. He fell into step at her side and remarked, "This Sesshomaru left camp well before dawn to avoid alarming the pack."

"It did sound like you battled an army out here."

"I usually practice in solitude. I will fly further away from now on."

"Don't have to on my account." Kagome followed his gaze to where his hanyou half-brother stomped and fumed at the fore. "Oh. Inuyasha? Don't take him too seriously. He's just a little jealous, is all."

"The hanyou is right to be. I will always be the more powerful." He smirked.

She laughed at his preening. Her voice took on a playful tone, "I dunno. He's pretty good. And who knows how good he'd have been with the benefit of your 'classical education.'" She did a funny little motion with her fingers. First and middle extended, curling twice as though to frame the words she spoke. Strange.

"It is true that he has on occasion surprised this Sesshomaru. I have pondered much on whether it had been pure accident or tactical brilliance. This Sesshomaru remembers well the sting of his Wind Scar."

Kagome grinned at him and reached out to squeeze his arm. He welcomed her touch and covered her small hand with his own. Then her gaze turned distant and she mused, "Do you ever wonder if your father, I dunno, had plans? For you and Inuyasha?"

"If he had not expired, you mean?"

"Think about it. He had one son to be his heir to the West. Then he had another with a human woman. If it had been simple lust, he wouldn't have cared. He wouldn't have given Inuyasha Tessaiga." Kagome's eyes twinkled as she spun these fanciful imaginings. "He wouldn't have put you two at odds that way without reason. What if he wanted a . . . connection to the ningen world? What if he never meant you to be enemies at all?"

Fascinating, if completely alien to his way of thinking. Sesshomaru shrugged. "I do not know. Nothing in the papers he left suggested such a thing. Nor is it the usual practice to acknowledge hanyou bastards, even as second sons."

"The way you say that. You really have a grudge against him, don't you?"

"This Sesshomaru sees that because of his father's sentimental attachment to his mistress and mongrel offspring, the Inu No Taisho fell to _humans." _He didn't mean to sound so scornful, but old habits are hard to break. "He should have fell to my hand. No one else's."

"You would have killed your own father?" This startled her, he saw.

"I am youkai. It is our way."

"I'm not sure if I should feel horrified or not."

"It just is. At times, your people's ways seem just as strange to me."

"Hmm," she hummed in thought, stroking her chin, "Like what?"

"The way ningen crowd each other in villages. You have no sense of territory. And you don't fight each other for more. Youkai are never content with what they have."

"Some humans do. Fight over land, I mean."

"Not the majority. Most live in communities and labor." Sesshomaru glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "And you will never find a youkai who cooperates with others without the desire for material gain."

"Oh? What did you have to gain when you helped Shippo and me kill that monster? When you saved the kit's life?"

He didn't have an answer for that. He could say the destruction of another of Naraku's misbegotten beasts or maybe the chance to flex his arm and show his power, but none of that felt right. Sesshomaru could tell her he did it to gain her favor, but also, that rang false. She'd been in danger. He acted. The taiyoukai grunted. He struggled to answer within his people's tenets, "Hn. It seems this Sesshomaru had something to lose, then. Something he did not wish to."

She laughed. "You make it sound so passionless, but I think we're rubbing off on you. I think you've learned to like letting us 'crowd' you."

Sesshomaru couldn't refute her words. Had he not thought himself how he'd missed their company? Her company? "Perhaps ningen carry some kind of disease contagious to youkai. A disease of . . . camaraderie."

"And maybe we caught avarice from youkai," she teased. Kagome flicked her hair back over her shoulder. "It's not so a bad thing, being friendly. Look at all the youkai that dwell among humans. They are by far the least destructive."

He nodded in reluctant agreement. "But they are not the greatest of youkai."

"Aren't they? What makes these aloof demons so great? Strength? Power? You've implied that it only makes them hungry for more. Sounds like instead of mastering their desires, their desires mastered them." When did she get so wise? Were all ningen in the future this intelligent? She had a way of gifting him with a whole new and vastly different perspective. Yet she still had more to say, "Look at Inuyasha. You can't deny he has strength and power, yet he's learned to use that to defend and protect. He was not as great when he strove only for the means to become a full youkai."

She would turn his whole world upside-down with these thoughts. And somewhere, deep in the back of his mind, wheels began to turn.

* * *

The battle dragged on until sundown and once the horde that had stood against them lay vanquished, the entire pack stood spent and bloody. All of them, even Sesshomaru, though he did his best not to show it.

Inuyasha fell back and lay full out upon the ground, breath heaving. "Let's . . . just make . . . camp here tonight."

"No, please, it's just a little further to Edo. Then a hot bath and some instant noodles . . .." Kagome's knees trembled as she tried to take a few steps down the road. "I got midterms tomorrow. C'mon, guys, just a bit more."

Shippo, face grey with weariness, dragged himself after her, then pitched face first into the dirt as well, groaning. "Ninjaaaa-fooooood . . .."

Just then, Rin and Ah-Un came out from where Sesshomaru bid them to hide at the outset of the fighting. The little girl called a greeting, "Sesshomaru-sama!"

He gave a small nod and beckoned her and the two-headed mount closer. To Ah-Un, he flicked a finger in the fox kit's direction. Ah dipped his head and picked the boy up by his scruff and put the kit on his back. Rin held onto Shippo so he wouldn't fall.

Sesshomaru prodded Inuyasha with a toe. "Up. Show me that strength the miko insists you have. This Sesshomaru has his doubts."

The jab did its work well. With a growl, the hanyou stood and reached for Kagome to carry her. Sesshomaru stepped between them and said, "I will take her." He lifted her by the waist and set her on his back. His hands curled under her knees, stroking the skin there in appreciation. Kagome giggled and wrapped her arms around his neck. He felt her bury her face in his moko-moko.

Rolling his eyes, the hanyou turned and looked to see who else needed help. Sango rode Kirara, though the nekomata did little but drag herself along the ground on her belly. That only left one unassisted ningen. "Aw, but that means I have to carry the priest!"

"Gee, Inuyasha, I like you, too." Miroku said, sour and sarcastic, from where he leaned on his staff.

"Fine. Climb on." Inuyasha crouched before the priest and helped him get situated on his back. "I swear, though, if your hands wander anywhere near my junk, I'm gonna bite them off at the wrist."

"No fear, friend. This priest only has eyes for the ladies."

"Oh? So, that wasn't a cross-dresser I saw you fondle in Kyoto?" Inuyasha led the pack down the road, swaying like a drunkard in his weariness.

"Possibly. If so, he worked so hard at the deception, I thought to give him a reward. He should've been flattered." The priest sighed and rubbed his jaw. "A stronger right hook from a woman I have never received."

They made it to Kaede's village well after night fell. As one, the pack groaned in relief as they set aside their burdens at the old priestess' door. The door slid aside and Kaede stepped out to greet them. Inuyasha made to shuffle past her and she stopped him with an outstretched hand. "You reek. And you're covered in blood!"

"Yeah? Well, that's what happens when a buncha demons jump you." His attitude made the prickly old ningen slap him with the ladle that never strayed to far from her hand. "Ow! What was that for? Aren't I beat up enough?"

"Maybe someone _should _beat the insolence out of you," threatened the woman with a clenched fist. "No one comes into this house until they're clean!"

"Now listen here, you fat, stupid old bi-!"

"Osuwari," said the tired miko.

With a loud and resounding thud, Inuyasha fell to the porch face first, compelled by the prayer beads around his neck. Sesshomaru fought a smile of amusement as the hanyou grumbled, "The whole fuckin' world's against me, I swear to Kami."

"Perhaps if you didn't invite its ire with careless tongue-" started the taiyoukai.

"Shut up, Sesshomaru," snarled the prone Inuyasha, but the words lacked heat. The hanyou must truly be tired.

The others trudged off in the direction of the springs and Sesshomaru followed.

"Mmm, you smell nice," mumbled Kagome into his ear. "It's not fair. I probably stink."

"You smell like honest toil and shed blood. It is not . . . _un_pleasant." His words that meant to comfort made her give a soft chuckle.

"Thanks, I guess? Still, it'd be nice to never have b.o. Lucky demon."

"This Sesshomaru forgives your human failings." He couldn't resist spreading his hands along the underside of her thighs. Certain other thoughts arose in his mind. Just then, they arrived at a series of pools. He didn't see the rest of the pack, but he could hear them, somewhere beyond the curtain of the low-hanging branches that made a natural screen. "We are here. Would you like to join the others?"

"Hm? Not coming with me?" She slid off his back and stretched.

"This Sesshomaru prefers to bathe alone."

Kagome bit her lip as she looked toward where the sounds of her friends filtered through the night air. Then she turned to him with a sparkle in her eye. "_Alone_ alone?"

He let a dark smile curl his lips. "Perhaps he will allow one other."

"Good." She mirrored his smirk and took him by the hand, leading him further from the others to a more secluded area. She set her pack down at the water's edge and kicked off her shoes. Then she started wading out into the pool.

"Are you going to bathe fully clothed?" he asked, puzzled.

"They need a wash anyway." Then she lifted her shirt over her head and treated him with a view of her slender back, bare but for a slim white breastband of some sort. Kagome slipped the straps down her shoulder and with a practiced motion, unclasped the device, letting it fall to the water. Then she looked at him over one shoulder and said, "Are you just going to stand there all night, Sesshomaru-sama?"

Until then, he hadn't noticed that he'd frozen while watching her. With an inner shake of self-admonishment, he started the tedious undoing of all his armaments. Swords, armor, haori and hakama soon piled up near her pack. He looked up to see that she'd undressed fully and paused to watch him, her eyes big and round. With slow and deliberate steps, he entered the pool. Its waters, pleasantly warm, lapped around his thighs, but it was her gaze that filled him with heat. His member gave a lurch when her tongue came out to wet her lips.

Sesshomaru sat and beckoned with one hand. She came to him without hesitation, her small hands touching his knees to pull herself closer. They slid up his legs and he shivered as his loins tightened, hard and aroused. He reached out and grasp her slim waist, delighting in their graceful curve. Turning her around, he sat her in his lap and pulled her back into his chest. Free to play, his hands roamed over the landscape of her skin, searching out all her sensitive spots. She moaned as his fingers found the peaks of her breasts, back arching. Her hips rolled back, pressing his aching cock between them.

The taiyoukai hissed, wanting nothing more than to drive into her and lose himself. But he held back. They had time. No need to rush this. With both hands, he spread her thighs so they lay outside his. Then he pushed them even further apart with his knees. Over her shoulder, he could just see how open and wanting she was. He moaned into her shoulder. His fingers found her slick folds and worked at them until she breathed so very fast in reaction, her heartbeat thrumming in his ears. When they found her entrance and sunk deep, her body went rigid as a tense wire. She cried out into the night and he put his other hand over her mouth lest she draw her pack's attention. In and out of her, his fingers danced. Her hot tunnel still so tight and firm. He knew she had to be close and wanted to feel her around him as she came.

Lifting her, he rocked his hips back and forth, the head of his cock teasing her by popping in and out. He could feel her growing desperation. When her hands came down to squeeze him and hold him in place, he could no longer hold back. His teeth found her nape. He thrust and pulled her down at the same time. Sheathed in her molten center, he stopped to catch his breath.

Then she started to move on him. He pulled back in shock as wave after wave of intense pleasure washed over him. Never had a female taken the lead with him before. His eyes drew down to where they joined, or would have if the plane of the water didn't obfuscate. Instead, he became entranced with the sight of her buttocks dipping in and out of the pool. He found it highly erotic, the way she bounced, the water rolling off her hips. Hips he covered with his palms. When her body drew taut and her back bowed, he felt her pulse and squeeze and undulate on him. The tang of fresh blood filled the air and he peered around her shoulder to see that she'd stifled her own cry of completion by biting into her palm. Her eyes rolled back into her head and she went limp against him.

Picking her up, he lay her on the edge of the pool, never removing his cock from her depths. He ran wondering hands over slick skin, following his touches with bites and nibbles. He just wanted to devour the whole of her. He thrust into her, eliciting a fresh moan from her that set his nerve endings on fire. Leaning down, he nuzzled her jugular with a growl. Part of him, a very male part, wanted to punish her for her wanton show of dominance over him. Another wanted to show her how he'd enjoyed it. He assuaged both by pounding into her tight heat fast and hard.

Fast losing control of his beast, he seized her throat in his fangs. Her head rolled back, offering her life to him if he so chose. Did she know how that pleased him? How that drove him out of his mind? Reaching his peak, he bit down on his tongue to keep from howling and emptied himself into her. Spurt after spurt left him, he shuddered with each one. He lapped at her neck and buried his hands in her hair, feeling like if he did not anchor himself to her, he may just float away on the tide of his climax.

Ardor cooling, he met her blue gaze. She watched him with the light of some great emotion in her eyes. It made her impossibly beautiful. He did not care any more about their differences.

She laughed, soft and musical. "What's that?"

"Hmm?"

"That. On your face." Her fingers, cool against his fevered flesh, slid along his jaw, and her thumb glided across his bottom lip. "I do believe that's a smile. And not your usual 'I'm about to annihilate you' smile, but a real one."

He scowled at her in mock anger and slid off her to drop back into the pool. Sesshomaru let himself sink until only his head remained above water. She pulled a couple of items from her pack before following him. Bottles of things that she lay on the spring's lip. "Oh, I'm so tired and . . .-"

"Sated?" he asked with one raised brow.

She blushed and looked at him shyly. "That, too. I can't sleep with dirty hair, though." She wet her hair and squirted something from one of the bottles into it. Before his eyes, she worked it into a foaming mass. Kagome rinsed it clean with a dip, then turned to him, gesturing at his locks that spread around him. "Do you want me to . . .?"

Curious, he nodded. And that's when he found out about shampoo and even more, the wonders of de-tangler. It felt so good to have her fingers running through his hair, it must be a sin. "Truly, the future is a place of luxury."

"Speaking of which, I'm going to be heading back there tomorrow for about a week."

He frowned, but what could he do? She had her own path to walk and that sometimes led her out of his grasp.

"Will you wait for me?" she asked, plaintive and unsure.

Sesshomaru turned a quizzical eye on her. Did that mean he affected her as much as she affected him? He couldn't seem to go an hour without thinking of her. Did she know the same thirst? It felt oddly good to know that she missed him. "Hai, Kagome. This Sesshomaru has tasks to complete, but he will be here on the sixth day to see the miko return."

Then she smiled a joyful smile that made his heart skip a beat and it felt like perhaps such a good and right thing as that smile could shut out the world's cruelties for just a little while.


	15. Chapter 15

"Tou-sama."

Sesshomaru looked up from where he sat with Rin's granddaughter on one knee to see his son, leaning on the doorframe. He did not seem that much older than when last the lord looked upon him forty years prior, except . . . the eyes. They held experience and depth. The boy had become a man, in bearing and aspect. The taiyoukai's heart clamored with pride. And the deft and graceful way Kenshin moved with two swords on his hips, Tenseiga, and the boy's own soul blade, Dattaisaiga, Fang of War, made his inner beast assess him as a severe threat. How glad that made him. How fiercely joyful.

"Inu-Kenshin." The lord stood, turning away from his son for a moment and handed the aged woman who was once his ward her progeny's progeny back. Rin gave him a smile and nodded in deep respect. "Rin, you will do as I say?"

"Have I not always?" Rin said, and in her grin he saw a little girl hidden in the ningen's wrinkles. It made his own lips twitch in fond remembrance. He would not tussle her hair, though he wanted to.

Sesshomaru nodded and stepped out of the house, Kenshin falling into step at his side. The pair walked for a time in silence. Then the father said, "You keep well?"

"I've no doubt you already know the answer to that, tou-sama." Kenshin glanced at him out of the corner of his eye, the hanyou's face so still and blank. His ears stood at attention, not giving anything away.

The taiyoukai took a moment to really look at his son. Simple black attire under worn lamellar plate armor the coppery color of dried blood. All his equipment seemed meticulously cleaned and maintained. His silver hair pulled back in a wild topknot high on his crown, but loose on the sides and around his forehead a long strip of cloth, hiding the crescent moon of his house. Sesshomaru took in this little observation with mixed feelings. He'd never asked the boy to hide his heritage. Was he ashamed to be the inu lord's son? Or did he fear bringing shame onto his father's name?

He decided to prod his heir to see on which side of that divide he stood. "Is exchanging simple pleasantries with a taiyoukai so difficult?"

Kenshin laughed. "I just didn't want to imply that you were unaware of my doings, for surely you must know."

"I am paying attention, yes." Sesshomaru hummed in satisfaction. "You have been very busy."

"They've been throwing themselves at me, as though in a rush to meet their end." His heir laughed again and ran a hand over his head, smoothing imagined fly-aways. "I half expect a line at my door when I open it in the morning."

"Well, you have vexed them by being so rude as to not fall to their brother's blades." The lord sat at the old shogi board and waved for Kenshin to set it up. They concentrated on their game. Sesshomaru only won the last of three by a very narrow margin, much to his hidden chagrin. He waved off the offer of another round and they sat, enjoying the warm spring afternoon.

Kenshin hummed to himself and said, "So is it to be war, then?"

"The youkai do not contend among themselves any more. You've shown them that the ningen can be a real threat by leading their armies on the East."

"I could do no less. They provoked retaliation for what they did to the temples in their provinces."

"Which was retribution itself for the Eastern lord's consort and her children being bound in stone," he reasoned in monotone, not giving away the fact that without his subtle interference, the monks would not have known how to seal the powerful eagle youkai. "The lords of the cardinal directions are calling for an accord. They do not want to lose control of the provinces."

For a moment, Sesshomaru saw anger bubble up under his son's careful mask. "You mean, you _fear_ us. The ningen and the few demons who've allied with us."

"You would be wise to assume this Sesshomaru does not fear anything."

"Where will you stand in this?" Kenshin said.

"Where I have always stood. With the best interests of my people."

Kenshin glared at him. "I always thought you sympathetic to the ningen. You don't raze them into oblivion. You let them alone, for the most part. You sired _me_, for kami's sake, a half-breed."

"You mistake this Sesshomaru for someone who will let sentiment stand in the way of doing his duty as he sees fit. When it comes to war, I will command the entire host of the youkai. Or so I have been requested to do."

"Then I have no choice but to do what I see as _my_ duty!" There seemed a moment of sorrow, then, as if he couldn't believe he may soon stand against his father in combat. And _that, _as much as the beast in him may crave conflict, Sesshomaru _could _empathize with.

"I would have it no other way." The taiyoukai gave the headband a significant look. "Do not fear to lose worth in this Sesshomaru's eyes for doing as you see fit. You are exactly as you should be. As time and circumstance has made you. There is no shame in that on your part."

Kenshin looked down at his hands, then out at the village he'd grown up in. A wealth of emotion flickered in his eyes. Sesshomaru watched him resolve his inner conflict with breathtaking speed. The hanyou took a deep breath and removed the cloth that covered his sigil. "As you wish, honored father."

Sesshomaru drank in the honorific, for he knew that sooner or later his son might not think him so honorable. "Let us be father and son today. And if the sun someday rises on us looking at each other across a battlefield, I will look back on _this_ day and be glad."

"Hai, tou-sama." Kenshin looked up then and gave him a wan smile that grew into a full one. "I would have you meet my betrothed. She waits on the forest's edge with Honsho."

"Your umamata, yes?"

"A good friend. A brother." His son led him through the village and out into the wilderness near the well. As promised, there stood a large stallion. Instead of fur, the beast had short, soft feathers all over that blew this way and that in the wind. The umamata tossed his head and snorted a greeting to Kenshin. On the horse's back, a slim female figure sat side-saddle.

Sesshomaru and Kenshin approached at a sedate pace. The lord paused to let the umamata get a good whiff of him before closing the last few feet. Only then did he take a good look at his son's intended. A heart-shaped face with delicate features and wide green eyes stared back at him with open suspicion. They had a decidedly leonine cast to them, just enough to make her seem feral and wild. Her straw-colored mane draped around spotted shoulders. Her attire, spare and efficient, covered her in a modest way but didn't restrict her movements.

Clearly a fighter, she had only a simple wooden staff, held across her knees.

"Tou-sama, this is Aiko, my betrothed." Kenshin held a hand out to her.

Aiko took it and slid off the mount. The female bowed low to him, then stood straight and looked him square in the eye.

Such audacity pleased Sesshomaru and he nodded to her. "My son loves well."

"The lord flatters me. I am happy to finally meet his sire, of whom he speaks so highly." Aiko smiled as she turned to look at him, revealing a predator's sharp teeth.

Sesshomaru turned and offered her his arm. "Come, let us walk and speak of Kenshin as though he were not present."

"Oi!" said that worthy, showing a spark of the boy he once knew.

"Certainly, lord." Aiko purred, throwing a smirk over her shoulder at her beloved. She took his arm, then, and laughed, light and full. It reminded Sesshomaru of another woman who laughed so, pricking his heart.

* * *

Days later, Sesshomaru found himself exactly where he'd predicted. It had only been a matter of time, after all. Once he'd accepted the other lords' commission, he'd started amassing his host. From a nearby hilltop, he watched the ningen armies below, in their fortifications outside Edo. He turned to Byakko and said, "Lead the eastern flank. That Kenshin will be there, in the skirmishers riding horses. This Sesshomaru will be pleased to know when that upstart is dead. See to it."

"Thank you for giving this unworthy Byakko the honor. Where will you be, lord?" Byakko said, a speculative gleam in his eye.

Sesshomaru made a mental note to look out for assassins. "On the north, in case they think to pincer us."

"Very good. I will await your signal." The tiger bounded off. Sesshomaru tracked his leaps all the way to his own cohort.

Then he turned an eye on the whole of the battlefield. Most of his forces would be devoted to putting down the humans below, but a select few, a _key _few, he'd separated and put in more untenable positions. Positions that left them, unbeknownst to anyone but Sesshomaru and the cadre of monks and priests that lay in wait at their rear, very vulnerable.

Sesshomaru had no intention of breaking the humans this day.

At a flare of his youki, they charged, streaming down from the sky toward the armies below. The two hosts clashed in a cacophonous roar of bellows and ringing steel. Sesshomaru saw the muzzles of many an arquebus being lifted to pepper the flying forces that harried them. With hidden glee, the lord watched many of the weaker demons fall.

Oh, the ningen had a brilliance. Faced with beings of unknowable arcane powers, they compensated with technology. Sesshomaru pursed his lips, thinking that perhaps he should have informed his people of the new 'guns' from the far west. No, let them be the ones to adapt, if they could. For too long, his people had grown complacent in their power.

A flash of white drew his attention east and there, his son, leading a charge, his woman at his back. Inuyasha leaped at his side, Tessaiga leading. Byakko's forces met them with lance but a bright flash and rolling wave from Dattaisaiga turned their points and the youkai scattered before the skirmishers.

Sesshomaru felt a questioning flicker of youki touch his aura. His reserve forces wanted to know if he would send them soon, but he had to wait until things became very dire for the youkai. Until they noticed the way Kenshin gutted the main host and started to panic. He felt a ripple of unease flow through the ranks, along with shock and realization from Byakko and his soldiers. A shriek of dismay went up and Sesshomaru knew his son had been marked for what he truly was, scion of Sesshomaru's house. The crescent moon on his forehead lit up the area with its radiance.

The lord adopted an air of pure outrage, as though he didn't know Kenshin was his son and a bastard at that, letting his youki flare and curl over the whole landscape of struggling figures. Every head turned to him and he made his face truly terrible to behold. Only then did he give his reserves the leave to attack. Thousands more demons burst from the clouds, all zeroing in on Kenshin's small group, all obeying their lord's silent command. A wave of remorse washed through him as he watched Kenshin and his forces backpedal, retreating from the horde that fell upon them. Necessities were cruel sometimes.

Now that all his host engaged the ningen, Sesshomaru slipped away. North, where Samebito defended their rear. The Southern lord greeted him with raised hand. "We've stopped a few of their scouts, that is all. How goes the battle at the fore?"

"Well. All is going as planned. Your son is making a good accounting of himself. He will be a good lord someday."_ Sooner than you think._

"Your praise is highly sought, Sesshomaru-sama. And well received."

Sesshomaru then 'volunteered', "I have received reports of advancing forces from Odani Castle. They camp in the mountains and will join the ningen forces on the morrow."

The shark lord grinned a wide and toothy grin. "We shall take care of it."

"This Sesshomaru will accompany you."

They set off at a run, scaling the foothills with ease. Sesshomaru led them down a narrow canyon before stopping.

"What is it, Sesshomaru-sama?" asked Samebito, clutching his harpoon in one hand.

"A trap, lord." With that, priests burst from their hiding places in the rocks. Sesshomaru leapt clear to land at Miroku's side just as the prayer slips started raining down on his hapless youkai.

"Betrayed!" bellowed Samebito, glaring mad hate at the inu lord. He rushed Sesshomaru, leaping high to pierce him with his spear. Sesshomaru stood fast in wait. Around them, the other demons fell in droves, succumbing to holy powers.

Miroku chanted the binding and threw the intended totem, a black pearl, at his feet. The prayer slip inscribed with Samebito's name flew towards the shark youkai, slapping him full in the face. And lastly, the priest held up a single rainbow-hued scale. Sesshomaru watched with a touch of wonder as Samebito's very essence flowed through the scale and down into the pearl. Once it was done, Sesshomaru bent and picked up the totem and turned to Miroku. "Someday, you will have to explain to this Sesshomaru why the binding needs a treasured artifact."

"Well, when we cherish something, it becomes a tether on our souls." The monk said.

"Demons have no souls." Common knowledge that Sesshomaru felt surprised he had to explain.

"I beg to differ. Demon have tiny souls, but they're there, even in you."

"Hn." He handed the pearl to Miroku. "He is a good lord. We may need him again someday. Keep him safe."

"So now we advance, yeah?"

"Wait for the youkai to be fully engaged on whatever's left of the ningen forces, then attack the rear. Bind as many as you can." Sesshomaru turned at a mighty boom that came from the main battle. He frowned as he thought of what that might be. The clouds over there reflected a vast array of unleashed youki. Bruised purples and gold flashes.

"That didn't sound . . . good." Miroku rubbed his balding pate and leaned on his staff.

"This Sesshomaru agrees. I must see if something has gone awry. I would know how Kenshin fares. This Sesshomaru left him a somewhat compromising position."

"Go, then and play the good father." Miroku held a hand up in the face of the hot glare the inu lord leveled on him.

"Advance, monk," commanded Sesshomaru before gathering youki in a cloud at his feet. He flew as fast as he could back to his command post on that hilltop and landed, awe-stricken by what he saw then.

Rage, vaster than any he'd known, swamped his senses. Fully half of his forces had been routed, more than he'd expected. The rest had manifested in their beast forms to combat the silver-haired being that stood at their feet and defied them. Inuyasha crawled in the blood-soaked ground beside him, wounded, while Aiko lay nearby, still. Too still.

Sesshomaru became transfixed by his son battling alone down there with only his Honsho at his back. Such skill and grace, such fearsome hate frozen on his face. Red fire seeped from his eyes. Youki flared from his fingertips. His sword flashed and sliced demons left and right. Sesshomaru ached to be down there, fighting at his back or perhaps facing off with him, the lord didn't know. The itch in him warred between these two desires. How magnificent Kenshin had become. How badly did Sesshomaru want to test his mettle himself.

Just then, as it seemed the ningen forces were about to be broken, the holy men in the mountains fell upon the youkai. Purified energies swept across the battlefield. The demons, confused at this turn, all turned to him. He flew down into their midst and fought with more exuberance than effectiveness. Soon the youkai became overwhelmed.

Sesshomaru called the retreat and turned just in time to see a stray purification strike Kenshin's umamata. The horse demon fell with a cry, his essence flowing through Kenshin before swirling away into a fallen dagger. Kenshin screamed fresh fury and chased the youkai who fled before him, striking down a massive white tiger with one fell sweep.

Byakko shrank down into his youkai form and lay prone, but still breathing. Kenshin stalked over and stood over him, ready to deliver the killing blow. The tiger laughed, blood coating his fangs. "I see now."

"You only see your death, youkai!" Kenshin struck, impaling Byakko with Dattaisaiga.

Sesshomaru, fighting the few soldiers who stood against him, heard Byakko then say, "Your father played you. Played us all." Then the tiger shuddered and went still.

Sesshomaru had to flee then, taking to the sky and dodging the bullets that chased him. His last glimpse of his son haunted him. Kenshin held Aiko in his arms, his stricken face turned to the sky in mindless grief. Sesshomaru reflected then, with deep and abiding guilt, that no one claimed victory that day.


	16. Chapter 16

"Like father, like son, ne? Hmph."

From where he sat leaning against the well, Sesshomaru turned his gaze to Inuyasha. The hanyou lay in the grass nearby, one leg bent at the knee. Sesshomaru looked back down at the book in his lap, his latest thought eluding his attempts to nail it down in choice few words. "Perhaps."

"Bet that just makes you wanna rip your hair out."

"This Sesshomaru feels nothing of the sort."

"Hn. You mean you feel nothing."

The taiyoukai sighed and put aside his work for now, tucking it away in a sleeve. "What I feel or don't feel is none of your concern."

"I don't get you. You used to think humans weren't worth pissing on. Now you're chasing after Kagome like a bitch in heat. Are you that hard up? Or did your sour personality chase off all the available females of your own kind?" Inuyasha grumbled, sneering. "I can't believe she let you dupe her again. How stupid can she be?"

"Do not say such things of her," he warned.

"Tch! But she must be stupid. Ain't nothing to be had but trouble screwing around with youkai." The hanyou plucked a tall grass shoot from the ground and stuck it between his teeth. "What's she thinking? That this is a fuckin' fairy tale? I knew I should have ripped up those books of hers. Nothin' but lies and bullshit."

"This Sesshomaru would not expect his illiterate brother to understand parables and allegories."

"I understand my sword and how to use it. That's all I need. I don't need your alle-thingies to know that."

So Sesshomaru thought once. His head tilted forward and hid the world from him in a curtain of frost-colored hair. He tried to pinpoint when, exactly, that had changed for him, or if it even had. He still yearned for challenges, but the focus of that seemed to have shifted. But to where?

"How do you see all this ending, Sesshomaru?" Inuyasha prodded his knee with a scabbard. "You gonna marry her? Take her to meet mommy dearest? Make her welcome in your castle? Make a ningen onna Lady Consort of the West? They'd tear her apart."

Sesshomaru blinked. He hadn't really thought about it. Just accepting these new feelings and desires felt like such a huge step on some treacherous path. Thinking ahead hadn't occurred to him. And none of the things Inuyasha just postulated felt . . . likely. For so many reasons. Kagome's origins. His own people's reactions. Duty. Tradition. In what world could the two of them have a future together? Not in this one.

He closed his eyes at the sudden welling of sharp pain under his sternum. "This Sesshomaru does not want to leave the miko." There was a truth, at least. It resonated in him.

"So you'll just string her along, then, is that it? Make Kagome your concubine? Is she your whore?"

In a flash, Sesshomaru held Bakusaiga to the hanyou's throat. He felt his lips draw back in a snarl. "Do. Not. Say such things of the miko."

"Ruffled your delicate sensibilities, did I?" snarked Inuyasha. He slapped the sword aside with the back of his hand. The taiyoukai let the point of his weapon drop towards the ground, though his hostile gaze assured his half-brother that he'd indeed roused Sesshomaru's fury.

Inuyasha rolled to his feet and drew Tessaiga, a slow pull that made blade ring against scabbard. The worn and notched steel glowed as it transformed into the curved broadsword that recognized the hanyou as its master. "See. This is real. Under all the fancy words and stories, all that matters to you and me is blood. And the shedding of it."

"I have taken much pleasure in shedding yours, half-breed." Yet doubts gnawed at him. Kagome's voice in memory saying, '_What if he never meant you two to be enemies at all?' _Sesshomaru shook it free and stood tall, welcoming Inuyasha to attack, if he so chose.

"As I have in returning the favor! Come lose another arm!" With that, the hanyou charged, swinging a wild, but powerful blow that Sesshomaru deflected to one side. Inuyasha flexed his claws and swiped at the air. _"Sankon-tetsusou!"_

Sesshomaru leapt high to dodge the arcing yellow light that flew from the hanyou's fingers. Then he countered with an energy whip. He watched its leading edge tear along the ground, throwing rocks in the air. Inuyasha dove to the side and let loose an attack Sesshomaru knew only too well. "_Kaze No Kizu!"_

Whole drifts of earth shook loose and lifted in its wake. Sesshomaru focused his youki and flew to one side. The Wind Scar passed by him, ruffling his hair, but naught else. He then closed the distance and swung Bakusaiga in an arc at head height. The hanyou met his strike in a solid block. The taiyoukai let fly a barrage of strikes, probing for openings in Inuyasha's defenses. And, while the hanyou's technique was undisciplined and raw, Inuyasha repelled him, sometimes by a narrow margin indeed.

Something in Sesshomaru coiled in pleasure at the idea of finding challenge where he'd least expected it. But then again, this hanyou half-brother of his had always had more pluck than power. Perhaps that accounted for something, after all. The taiyoukai pressed forward, eager to show Inuyasha how futile his efforts became in the face of all of Sesshomaru's centuries of constant battle, the honing of his martial skills to peerless levels.

Inuyasha jumped away, a small retreat that showed Sesshomaru that the hanyou knew he'd soon be outmatched in a toe to toe engagement. "I was wondering when the real Sesshomaru would come out to play! Well, play with this! _Bakuryuuha!"_

_The Backlash Wave! _Looking at the tidal wave of energy sweeping towards him, Sesshomaru realized with dawning horror that the well lay some distance behind him. If he let the attack through, it could destroy Kagome's only means of travel between their times. From the look on Inuyasha's face, he'd realized what he'd done.

Sesshomaru's inner beast propelled itself to the fore with blinding speed. The world grew brighter, more intense and . . . smaller as the taiyoukai let his form shift. Desperation filled him as he sought to find a wedge to disrupt the Backlash Wave. He put himself square in its path and brought all his strength to bear. A flash of red drew his eye to Inuyasha, who'd leapt to stand at his feet to meet the blast as well. In this, they held a silent agreement.

The wave hit. Sesshomaru dug his claws into the earth to keep it from throwing him back. He felt it pull at his substance, ripping, tearing. The stinging soon became an agony and the giant dog demon howled against it. He bent all his power to absorbing the energies that raged around him. Through narrowed eyes, he watched Inuyasha slice at the wind, and felt it grow weaker, cut into smaller gusts. Finally, the wave abated.

Sesshomaru assessed the damage to himself. Blood dripped from a thousand tiny cuts, but other than that, no lasting harm. He let his youki heal him. A thought struck him then, cutting deeper than the wounds he'd just received, _The well!_

In a few bounds, he stood over it, sniffing at it this way and that, looking for proof that it still worked. He put his muzzle right into it until it could go no deeper and took a huge breath. The power that fed the well tickled his nose and he sneezed, followed by a full body shake. Relieved that it seemed intact, he sat back.

A full-throated guffaw made him swivel his head to look at Inuyasha. The hanyou rolled in the grass, holding his sides as the sounds of his mirth filled the air. Sesshomaru growled low and cold. Inuyasha shook his finger at the dog demon. "Oh! Oh, man . . . you got it bad, don'tcha? Ha!"

For a long moment, Sesshomaru battled the temptation to devour his half-brother, but decided against it. Such a meal promised only indigestion. He let go of his beast's manifestation with that same reluctance/yearning that always reared its head when he sealed his beast away. The baser side of him wanted only to run, and to rage and to feel, experience and do. How silly. As ever, pragmatism won out. Sesshomaru sighed as he settled into his skin once more.

"Hn," was all he said. He took in the torn up earth, the battered trees with dismay. "It appears both of us could use a lesson in restraint."

"Hey, you're the one that pulled steel first."

The taiyoukai gave a nod, conceding the point. "This Sesshomaru offers a solution. A truce of sorts."

"Uh huh?" Suspicion rang from the hanyou's careful utterance.

"Should we come to blows like this again, we agree to use only mundane attacks." Sesshomaru looked over at Inuyasha, noting the scowl that graced his face.

Inuyasha growled. "So if we fight again, I'll only try to murder you with steel?"

"In essence, yes. Though, killing each other only benefits our enemies."

An eager light grew in the hanyou's eyes. "What if we make this a . . . spar, type of thing."

Sesshomaru frowned, thinking it a waste of his abilities, even as practice. "It seems a futile expenditure of energy on your part to pit yourself against a vastly superior swordsman."

"Vastly superior, my ass. I drew first blood." Indignity flew from his eyes like sparks.

"Only because your carelessness almost cost us the miko. This Sesshomaru would not allow that." The taiyoukai glared at his bastard sibling and took in the sullen resentment that filled his expression. _What harm is in the idea, after all? _"I will not be easy on you, if we do this."

"_I_ won't be easy on _you!" _spat the defiant hanyou.

Sesshomaru sighed again. Exasperation seemed the default emotion when dealing with Inuyasha. But the whelp refused to be ignored, so this may solve two problems in the end. His constant interruption of Sesshomaru's introspection and it would give them both an outlet for their frustrations. "Then we have an accord."

His formal tone made the hanyou's ears perk forward. An unfamiliar expression flitted over Inuyasha's face. The taiyoukai wanted to call it satisfaction at being taken seriously by Sesshomaru for once. With a faint smirk, Inuyasha bent at the waist, the customary sign that a deal had been struck. "We do."

Sesshomaru mirrored him, in a shallower bow than the hanyou's.

"What the hell?" A voice near at hand made both men jump. They turned their faces to the sound. Kagome, hands on the well's lip, looked back with mouth agape and round eyes. Sesshomaru felt a wave of embarrassment at being caught in so compromising a position. He straightened with haste. The miko then looked around the clearing and her voice grew angry, "What the _hell?!"_

In the flurry of shouted accusations and stuttering excuses that followed, Sesshomaru felt the rise of a new feeling in him as he looked down the crater Inuyasha had been 'sat' into over and over again. Pity, and . . . sympathy. Plus the tiniest shard of guilt for letting the hanyou take the punishment for something they'd both done. He turned to the miko, with her face all flushed with fury. A very attractive look for her. "Surely the hanyou has had enough."

"No! He promised me he'd keep the peace. Should've known it was just more bullshit!"

"But he is sorry. You are sorry, are you not, Inuyasha?" he called down the hole. _Oh, you are a sorry one, half-brother._

A dazed voice drifted up to him in a quavering sing-song, "Ya. I'm . . . sorry."

"See, Kagome? No need to ravage this meadow further." He spread his hands in a magnanimous motion, the picture of logic.

The miko looked from him to the crater, nonplussed at the two brothers' uncharacteristic complicity. Then a tiny smile curled one corner of her lip. She spun on a heel, grabbed her bag and stomped away with a huffed, "Hn!"

Sesshomaru smiled as he watched her walk away. Then he called down to Inuyasha, "The miko is gone, little brother." He made the appellation full of just enough contempt that he knew it would rouse the hanyou's anger. "When you've crawled out of that hole, I'll be waiting in the fields west of the village."

Mumbled curses rose from the depths, much to his amusement.

As he strode away, the taiyoukai couldn't deny a certain . . . eagerness to spar with Inuyasha. How mad. How intriguingly insane.


	17. Chapter 17

"Make it work." Flat, toneless words accompanied the sound of a sword being thrown to the ground. It slid across the floor until it bumped into Sesshomaru's feet and clattered to a halt.

The inu lord didn't look up from the woman whose deathbed he sat beside. Or let go of the cooling hand in his. Rin, his brave and glorious Rin, gone. Without her, the peasants of Edo would not have seen this day's sun rise. She worked hard to evacuate them all, as he'd asked. _I ask too much._ The thought only added a burning edge to his sorrow. Her diligence and effort had a terrible price. Overwrought by her advanced age, Rin had fallen.

Jaken knelt on the floor, tears flowing down his cheeks. Whether he wept for Rin or because Sesshomaru wouldn't lacked certainty.

The only thing that made saving these hapless ningen seem worth her life; the knowledge that she had wanted to do no less. Her heart encompassed them all. One manipulative bastard of a taiyoukai, included. He stroked her cheek as he replied to his son, "Tenseiga only works once to resurrect the fallen."

A harsh whimper resounded through the small house. Sesshomaru made himself turn and look.

Kenshin stood in the door, his beloved limp in his arms. His face, he buried at her neck, nuzzling in helplessness. Aiko's wide and empty eyes stared at the lord, as though in accusation. Well earned, Sesshomaru felt it lance him. His son drew a deep and shuddering breath. "You did this."

Sesshomaru struggled to keep his words even and cool. "I did."

"Why?" A plaintive plea that struck his father to the heart. "Why all of it?"

"This Sesshomaru has his reasons." The existence of the boy before him being one.

Silence reigned for a long time and in that silence, the inu lord felt Kenshin's thoughts grow darker and more troubled. Blue eyes, narrow and glazed over in hate speared him then from the dead girl's neck. "All my life, you've been shaping me, guiding me. For what, I ask myself every day. For this? The fulfillment of your goals at the price of my happiness?"

Sesshomaru did not speak, could not speak. To explain would only make all of their sacrifices in vain. Would the boy strike him down now? Would he even try to stop him? He didn't know. Sesshomaru knew well he deserved whatever came next.

Kenshin stooped to pick up Tenseiga, all the while holding Aiko tight to his chest. "You keep me in the dark, though I've felt the touch of your interference many times. You give me this weapon, and tell me it can do wonders. Like cheating death! Well, liar, a more useless thing I have never seen!"

He thrust the blade deep in the floor, through the wood and into the dirt beneath. With a burst of demonic strength, Kenshin snapped it off at the hilt. The hanyou dropped the hilt on the ground then and wiped his hand on his hakama as though cleaning filth from his palm. He then turned from his father and said, "I go. To where I don't know yet. Far from you. I'd strike you down now, but I'm not sure I have the strength. Someday, I'll come back. And on that day, I will destroy you."

Sesshomaru closed his eyes as the door slid shut with a very final click. All had gone according to plan. He'd known the boy could not countenance his manipulation forever, so why did his hate sting so? He'd thought himself prepared for it. It threatened to shred his heart to tatters. _My son knows hate now. I have done this. Kagome, forgive me._

* * *

Sesshomaru sat in his ruined castle, staring at the broken blade across his lap. Even though he'd known it would happen, the fact of it still shocked and troubled him deeply. The last legacy he had of his father, destroyed.

"Oh, Sesshomaru-sama . . .," Jaken whispered, looking around at the burned and shattered remnants of his lord's study. "All your fine things."

"The ningen move fast. It is only to be expected." Not a hour earlier, he'd received the other lords in this very place, illustrating the futility of prolonging their war. Pieces of that confrontation stirred in his memory-

_"Our rule is broken," Sesshomaru spoke to the other lords, "Best if we accept that and work towards surviving what comes next."_

_"How can this be? Where were Samebito and his forces to repel the holy workings of the monks?" Seiryu almost frothed at the mouth in his rage, his eyes flaming in the darkened room._

_"They fell to the priests' charge." The lord of the West explained. "Then they moved on our rear, capitalizing on our weaknesses."_

How proud they'd been, in their outrage, especially when he'd proposed the unthinkable-

_Samehiro, son and heir of Samebito, growled, "Surrender? To ningen?!"_

_Sesshomaru stood and bowed to the other lords. "The humans move. Even as we speak, they've started to hunt us as we once hunted them before we'd put them under our heels. Were we such generous landlords that they will have mercy on us? I think not."_

_Seiryu turned to the other lords. "This dog who failed to lead us to glory would have us grovel in the dirt or do nothing!"_

_"No, lord, not nothing. This Sesshomaru would have you fight. To your last breath, fight. I spoke of the other option to rouse your fury. We are youkai. We do not surrender to defeat!" He let wrath coil around his words. "If this is our last decade to be on this good earth, let us flame and rage and battle! If the new has come to eclipse the old, let Death come find us, well fortified and ready!"_

And so they'd went their way. Sesshomaru knew that it would be some time before the humans took down the greater ones, even with the information he'd fed their priests. Now that his people knew how vulnerable they'd become, they would have to learn how to be cunning and quick. Or so he hoped.

Sesshomaru pondered the irony of his remaining in the destroyed castle they'd struck in his absence. _Surely they must know I am here, why do they not come with pitchfork and torch to end me?_ For a moment, he lamented his fearsome reputation. They must still be too afraid of him.

"Jaken."

His only remaining servant bowed low and answered, "Hai, Sesshomaru-sama?"

"I go to see Totosai. You go find out what you can about my son."

"But, lord, what if the humans find me and bind me?" Jaken flapped his arms and jumped in place, fear etched on his green face. The overwhelming panic in the imp's voice threatened to make the lord laugh. Sesshomaru felt a wave of nostalgia at the little coward's antics.

"Be crafty or cease to _be_," he offered, making it seem as though the taiyoukai didn't care either way. Then he stood and swept by his servant, who abased himself while muttering curses into the floor. He paused at what remained of his door. "Jaken, go."

"Yes, lord!" The imp scrambled to obey him.

Sesshomaru let himself smile as Jaken sped out of the castle as fast as his little legs could carry him. Then he gathered his youki cloud and set off to find the old blacksmith.

Totosai eyed him up and down as soon as he landed in the clearing the old demon called home. "Sesshomaru-sama, to what do I owe the pleasure of your visit, dubious as it happens to be."

Sesshomaru had long since learned patience when dealing with the old bastard's impudence. He set the broken remnants of Tenseiga on the demon's anvil. "Tenseiga is sundered. Fix it."

The blacksmith tutted over the sword, picking it up and turning it this way and that. "It will never be as it was. Its youki is shattered."

"The ingot I brought you some decades past will not aid in your efforts?"

"No doubt it could, strange metal that it is. I could fold it into the blade. But change the steel? There's no telling what its powers will be if I do that."

"It matters not. Repair it and hold it for the hanyou, Kenshin."

"Hn. And what will you give me for this service?"

"I suppose the standard rate of exchange on your life and you keeping it doesn't apply?" Sesshomaru had no real intention of smiting Totosai. His comment merely conformed to the structure of their long association.

The old blacksmith huffed a wheezing laugh, enjoying their little dance, as well. "But then I could not do as you say."

"A favor, then? To be redeemed at a later time?"

"A truly valuable piece of currency. But I'm afraid this time I need more."

"What would you have of this Sesshomaru?"

"A fang."

"For what do you need the fang of this Sesshomaru?" He arched a brow at the old smith.

"An old man is allowed his secrets." And secrets did swim in the old bastard's eyes, wide and round though they may be. A wizened finger dug around the recesses of the smith's pointed ears, making a squeaking sound.

Staring Totosai down, Sesshomaru made his decision. He grasped a canine between thumb and forefinger and yanked. The tooth gave way with a sickening, wet sound. The agony that shot through the taiyoukai stayed hidden behind his stoic mask. Sucking at the blood that poured from the socket, Sesshomaru handed the fang over and watched it disappear into the smith's greedy hand.

"Not a flinch nor a sound. I admire the lord's fortitude."

"You have your boon."

"I do. Inu-Kenshin will find this sword whole and ready when he returns to these lands."

Sesshomaru frowned. "What do you mean, 'returns to these lands'?"

"Only that a little birdie told me that they saw him take to the ocean heading west."

"How long ago?"

"Ah, ah, ah. Further information will cost you another fang."

Considering, the lord waved a dismissive hand. "It matters not. Kenshin will find his own way."

The smith smiled, dark and sinister. "Yes, he will."

Tired of the old demon's cryptic ways, the lord left. When Jaken found him later, the imp's information was no more complete. Kenshin had disappeared. Inuyasha assisted the monks and priests' scourge of the demons' holds. The administration of all the provinces was being divided among ningen lords, far smoother than Sesshomaru expected. But the humans proved themselves over and over again to be ever adaptable.

The days of the youkai were over, for the most part. A new era had begun. Whether or not the youkai deserved another chance to live openly in the world alongside men lay in the hand of destiny.


	18. Chapter 18

"So you're really okay with it?"

Bathing in the afterglow, Sesshomaru lifted his head from her breast and smiled down into her eyes, so deep and blue. "This Sesshomaru admits trouncing his idiot half-brother in spar every morning has been great . . . fun."

The last few weeks had been quiet, a rare period of idyllic reflection that only underlined the fact that it all seemed to be drawing to a close. Naraku seemed just out of reach. Soon, they would have him. This calm before the storm felt like a transient dream sometimes, but one he should not like to waste.

"He's almost congenial now. I caught him being polite to Kaede-sama the other day."

"Doubtless, he is too tired to be his usual, unpleasant self. I am not easy on him." Sesshomaru hummed in pleasure, wondering at the ease he felt around her. How open and free he felt with her. How unrestrained by titles and airs he let himself become.

"No, it's more than that. I always thought his troubles might stem from feeling like a pariah his whole life. Maybe that's only part of it."

"Hmm?" It always interested him to hear what she thought. She had a knack for seeing straight to the heart of things.

"He was only six when his mother died, did you know?"

Sesshomaru frowned. "I had known he was young, but not his actual age. At the time, it hardly mattered to me. I only cared that my father was no more."

"His childhood was horrible. They tormented him, youkai and humans alike. Words, thrown stones, everybody shunned him just because he was different. A small child on his own learns very quickly how to hide, how to run. When they did catch him, they brutalized him. I'm sure he only survived because of the strength of his demon blood."

Sesshomaru found himself picturing this and felt surprise at the touch of outrage that flickered in him that ningen would treat one of his father's blood so. Nevermind that it flowed in the veins of a mongrel half-breed. He expected such behavior from demons, who delighted in wickedness and regularly hunted down and devoured each others' children. He hadn't thought ningen capable of such cruelties.

Kagome stroked his head, running her fingers through his hair. Sesshomaru tilted his head so that her fingernails scratched at an itchy spot on his scalp and rumbled pleasure at her. She spoke, voice soft and sorrowful, "What kind of life is that for a child?"

"Hanyou are fated to have difficult lives. It is proof that our worlds should stay separate." The words sounded weak in their resolve. After all, he lay in a ningen's arms and felt more content than he could ever remember feeling.

"Perhaps the fact that there are hanyou at all is proof that the two worlds are not incompatible. Maybe the divide exists only in our heads." She ran her hands along his back, kneading his muscles with her clever fingers until he felt boneless in repose. "If it was not meant to happen, then it would not happen at all."

"You would populate the world with hanyou?" Amusement colored his tone. He ran a hand along the skin over her womb and smiled to see it twitch under his probing. "Would you birth a hanyou just to show it the love that Inuyasha lacked in his rearing?"

She giggled, suddenly nervous under his appraisal. "I'm . . . not ready for kids, human or hanyou."

A strange statement. Kagome seemed to be of mature age. Is it not the way of ningen to multiply as soon as opportunity beckoned?

Kagome arched her brow at him. "You're thinking 'that's what women are for', aren't you?"

"Not in such demeaning a way, but yes."

"It's a little different in the future. Women can have careers, goals. They can even lead a nation." She stared at him as though expecting an outcry of denial. To which he only shrugged. Kagome frowned. "You don't seem surprised."

"This Sesshomaru does not make it a habit to underestimate anybody. He is well aware that females can be just as, if not more, vicious and deadly than males. Most youkai are patterned after beasts. There is no fairer sex in nature."

"Hmph. Well, I didn't expect such heights of social reform in this era." She seemed almost disappointed.

He chuckled at her expression. "Now who is underestimating whom?"

Kagome blushed and said, "Guilty as charged. Still, the way your people keep the humans under their thumbs is downright archaic."

"Some of us live to be thousands of years old. What you've seen of us is typical. We fight. We live to fight. The ones who reach such an advanced age have become very good at it. All who will not challenge must serve. It has become . . . tradition."

"And the old ones have always clung to tradition." Really, she pleased him with the way she followed his thoughts with ease.

"Hai."

"Hmmm." A pensive frown pulled at her lips. "Still, what is all this constant struggle good for?"

"It is good for us. Keeps us sharp. We survive."

"But is surviving enough?"

Again, a perspective that refreshed him with its peculiarity. "This Sesshomaru does not understand."

"Well, just surviving doesn't seem all that great. What about all those things that make life worth living? Doing things just for the sheer joy in them. Seeing all the beauty in the world. Learning its mysteries. Seeing truths. Experiencing love . . .." She stopped and looked at him sidelong. The flash of her eyes made him feel warm all over, a tingly rush that started at his toes and ran all the way up to the top of his head. Such unsteadiness that used to alarm him, he now welcomed.

Was this the love she spoke of? The sensation of falling into a deep chasm at the bottom of which could be hell or some blinding nirvana? It delighted. It terrified. And that made the whole of it more enticing. He felt drunk on this feeling.

He wet his lips to say, "Yes, perhaps there is more to life than survival."

Kagome kissed him then and reached down to where his manhood stood erect once more. Sesshomaru moaned against her mouth and thrust his tongue forward to tangle with hers. His hands found her hair and its soft curls wound around his fingers, smooth as silk and twice as fine. Blacker and more lustrous than the night sky. His own locks fell around them and made a pleasing contrast, silver on ebony.

She arched underneath him as his fingers drifted down her body and found her wet center, still sticky from his earlier exertions. He released her mouth to lap at her collarbone. Enchanted by the graceful curves and swells of her, he roamed until every inch of skin had been licked, nipped or kissed. He found a spot on the back of her knee that made her laugh. A section of rib that made her squirm. And his favorite, a place just under her jaw that made her moan with such lust that it nearly made him come undone right then.

He leaned back to survey his work. Kagome, bright and flushed, panting with need. Was there ever a more delectable sight? _This Sesshomaru thinks not._

Then he dove back in and made short work of her need, with tongue and teeth and cock, he brought her off time and again until she begged for reprieve. Only then did he indulge in his own satisfaction. He and his inner beast agreed that she would make quite an appealing sight on her knees and with a combined lifting, spinning motion that took her breath away, he arranged her thus.

Sesshomaru growled at the tempting sight of her bowed back and tilted hips, presenting her core to him. He wasted no time burying himself in her depths. Her quim gripped him, tight and hot, milking him as he thrust into her fast and deep. His hands found her hips and pulled her back to meet him in time with his rhythm. He fast lost control and pressed down on her back between her shoulder blades so she lay face-down with her buttocks in the air. Through clenched teeth, he hissed, _"Mine!"_

She whimpered, "Yours."

Then she did a wicked thing. Her small hands drew up between their thighs and cupped his scrotum, kneading and pulling at them. He didn't have a word to describe the feeling. Sesshomaru plunged ever harder into her tiny canal and the combination of the sight of her abased under him in so submissive a pose, the sensation of her around him and her hands touching him so intimately finally sent him rocketing over the edge into ecstasy. A deep growl signaled his release. His essence left him in a torrent, leaving him weak-kneed and drained.

Sesshomaru pulled his spent member out of her and, with arms wrapped around her waist, lifted her back against him as he sat on the mat that made their bed in Kaede's guest house. He put her between his legs and just embraced her, his forehead he rested on her slim shoulder. With her own arms, she covered his and held him back as well as she could.

They cooled together in the wake of their passions. The taiyoukai moved her hair to one side and tasted of the lustrous skin at her nape. She shivered against him, making his cock jump. Her head turned to look him in the eye, a wry little smile gracing her lips. "What? Again?"

"Youkai stamina is legendary, but this Sesshomaru has no desire to move from his current situation." He gathered her closer as he smiled at her in sated bliss. "Though if the miko wishes for more, I am happy to oblige."

"I don't think my hips are ever going to be the same. I'm content enough." Then her smile turned as wicked as any youkai female had ever managed. "For now."

He laughed against her neck, throaty and deep. Oh, yes, he'd found his match in her. No matter that they came from different peoples. What they had transcended that somehow. Every day with her, every moment in her company made his spirit soar. He'd never been so aware of the world and its wonders before she'd come along, nor thought about it so deeply.

Then she sighed, and it drew his attention because it seemed troubled. "Kagome?"

Her smile turned sad and worried. "We leave tomorrow to confront Naraku. For the last time, I hope."

Many pressing concerns sometimes escaped him while in her company, but never that one. "That Naraku will finally answer for the outrages he has committed."

"Yeah. But what about after? Your reason for even being with us will be gone." She turned away from him and he felt her tense up in his arms.

Sesshomaru considered her words with care. Then decided to answer them in a roundabout fashion. "Inuyasha is calmer now because I have shown him that he might have worth. In all his battles and victories over other demons, there had always been a kernel of doubt in him. Not demon enough to be a real threat, not human enough to be embraced. He raged because he felt ship-wrecked in a sea of inadequacy."

"But he isn't worthless." Her eyes snapped blue fire at him. When she tried to shift away from him, he held her until she calmed.

"No, he is not. But many years believing it so keeps him from seeing the truth of like how a sword is deflected by armor. Truths can cut, they can be hard. They hurt. Safer to believe as others believe. This belief sheltered him, let him go to such terrible extremes to survive because, after all, no one would expect any more or less from a half-demon bastard. So that's what he became. All he _let_ himself become," he whispered it in her ear, the thoughts that had come to him night after night. After all, if she'd not been there to plant the seed, he would never have thought thus. "You showed him that not all humans would revile him for his parentage. You dared show him that his past sins didn't have to determine who he becomes in the future. You gave him control of his destiny."

"And you? What did you show him?"

"The other half. Respect for the power he wields. An acknowledgement of his threat. From one such as I, who has never been accused of wasting his time at false comfort, that tends to carry much weight." He stroked her ribs to feel her squirm and giggle. "Can you not see that if you had no worth, I would not be here? Holding you. Why would I risk the ridicule of the world if I thought you inadequate? Or let you venture close enough to stab me to the heart in my vulnerable state of undress, if you so chose?"

She hummed. "As if _you_ could ever be vulnerable."

"You are wrong, little miko." He smiled at her over her shoulder and arched one elegant brow. "Around you, I feel all too vulnerable."

Kagome gasped a tiny gasp and looked at him in wonder.

Sesshomaru continued in the silence that followed his statement, "There is no reason for this Sesshomaru to continue accompanying the miko and her pack once Naraku is dead. But _reason _has nothing to do with it. Logic has no sway over me beyond what I give it. This I learned from you. As you have taught Inuyasha, you have also taught me. I am not defined by what I am. I choose who I wish to be."

"Sesshomaru . . .," she started, but didn't seem to know how to proceed. Kagome swallowed and watched him with eyes grown bright with unshed tears.

The taiyoukai shifted so that they lay next to each other and rested his head on her breast, hearing the low thrum of her heart echo throughout his being. "This Sesshomaru would find out if there is more to life than surviving."

"This Kagome would give anything to show him."

The miko settled into a deep, peaceful slumber as he listened to the slowing of her pulse, the regular hiss of her breath. Sesshomaru let himself drift into that timeless place between consciousnesses, not quite separated from the waking world.

Sometime later, he felt the sun on his face and turned onto his back, pulling her over him, wishing for just a few more hours.

Then he heard her speak to him, so soft and so full of guileless passion that it made him quake, "Aishiteru, Sesshomaru."


	19. Chapter 19

_'He has returned. And, boy, is he pissed.'_ Inuyasha's voice in his memory, sounding throughout his mind, drawing sorrow in its passing. The hanyou had stood in his crumbling abode not a week prior to give him the news. Now . . ..

Sesshomaru looked down at the missive in his hand and made a sound somewhere between a sigh and a pained grunt. It came from that successor of Nobunaga's. He searched for the name in his memory. Ah, Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The man who would unite all of Japan and by all accounts, well on his way to doing just that.

His eye turned to the content of the message-

_'To Lord Sesshomaru, taiyoukai of the West,_

_I regret to inform you of the death of your half-brother, Inuyasha, at the Battle of Komaki. He fell at the hands of a white-haired swordsman of unparalleled ability. As you and I have a cordial accord, I send you this message with my deepest condolences. And admission to the shame that we could not reclaim Inuyasha's body from where it lay before his adversary had taken it. To where, we do not know._

_May my sincerest apology appease your wrath._

_-Kampaku'_

There lay an ache in his breast. But why? Did he truly miss his brother? Grieve for him?

Sesshomaru closed his eyes against it and the guilt that it had all gone wrong. It hadn't really, but it felt that way now that he knew for sure that his son had come home after thirty years abroad with only vengeance in his heart.

And what terrible vengeance Inu-Kenshin wrought. Everyday, Sesshomaru heard of yet another of the great youkai lords falling to Kenshin's fury. Merciless, pitiless, the hanyou tore through what little defenses the last of his people had and struck them down. Totosai had been the first. Kenshin speared him with the very sword the old smith had given him not a second after he'd done so. So Myoga, the flea youkai, told him. How cruel his son had become, how very demon-like.

Yet there was no pride in his father for that thought. Only sorrow.

To Jaken, who knelt at the end of his table, he said, "I fear my son has gone mad."

Jaken nodded, "It appears so, Sesshomaru-sama."

"Inuyasha has fallen. Apparently, Kenshin's wrath extends to all of youkai blood, not just the purebred. I did not expect him to strike down the kitsune, Shippo, let alone his own uncle."

Myoga, the cunning old flea, hopped onto his inkwell. "It seems he takes after his father after all."

A dropping sensation in the lord's guts told him that those words did not hold the praise he would have liked, once. "I must see him."

Jaken shook his head, in panic. "Sesshomaru-sama!"

The taiyoukai leveled a pointed look at the imp. "You think this Sesshomaru afraid? You think I should cower in this ruined stronghold and hide?"

Jaken abased himself, and sobbed, "I only wish no harm to come to you, lord! What if this assassin plants a knife in your heart? You have shown him so much favor and he repays you with hate!"

"You have lived among the ningen too long, servant. You have forgotten that sons and fathers do battle over legacies. I welcome his hate, even as I mourn it." Sesshomaru flicked a hand in dismissive fashion.

"Your servant isn't the only one softened by association with the humans. What if he takes advantage of your regard for him to kill you?"

"There is no such thing as honorable combat, Jaken. If it is my fate to die by his hand, then so be it." The lord turned back to Myoga. "But before I do, this Sesshomaru would witness his son's skill first hand."

"He flies to the north, lord. He intends to do battle with Kouga."

Sesshomaru almost called for Ah-Un to be readied, then remembered the two-headed ryumata had been sealed in iron long ago. He winced and stood. "Ready yourself, Jaken. We go to the north."

The imp looked around at the burnt rice paper walls and shattered remains of a once fine abode, then at himself and his staff, the Ninjoto. "I am . . . ready?"

The lord led the way out into his dead garden courtyard and said to Jaken, "Hold onto my moko-moko. We will fly."

Sesshomaru gathered his youki as the imp did as instructed. He also felt the tiny presence of Myoga on his person. So, the flea would go as well? So be it.

The way north stayed uneventful. He heard no singing suzaku, the vermillion firebird youkai with their bright plumage didn't streak across the sky like they did in his memory. No scents of warring demons or hidden uncanny mysteries teased his senses. The world seemed so grey now, with none of his people in it.

They passed by the ruins of the Summer Palace, where the Lady-Mother once resided. She'd fallen to Kenshin's sword, too. Sesshomaru felt a wave of sadness and weariness as he thought of the glee Kenshin had exhibited upon meeting the venerated youkai lady. His grandmother. How they'd spoken long into the night of politics and intrigue as Sesshomaru politely listened. The lord supposed none of that mattered to Kenshin now.

Sesshomaru smelled blood on the wind. On a far plateau, he espied them. Two figures dancing the ages-old steps of lethal combat. He flew closer to observe. "Myouga, where is the wolf lord's pack? Why are they not defending their lord?"

"Sealed by Miroku's disciples, ten winters past."

Kouga, dark hair flying as he spun and rolled, barely dodged a lightning quick flurry of strikes from Kenshin's bo staff. Sesshomaru recognized it as the one Aiko wielded. With wonder, he watched Kenshin plant one end of it to the ground with a resounding thud. The other end extended to a huge length and slammed into the wolf lord's belly, sending him flying.

The inu lord took a moment to look at Kenshin work his martial mastery. Such artistry he'd never expected to see from a hanyou. So fluid and meticulous, not an ounce of waste in every sweep and thrust. With an analyzing eye, Sesshomaru realized Kenshin must surely be on par with the taiyoukai's ability. To come so far in so short a time . . .. He felt the first stirrings of joy mixed with awe as he witnessed his heir's grandeur.

Kenshin's silver hair, bound in a long topknot, swung this way and that as he capered and leapt. Kouga seemed to realize his dilemma then, for he did not stand a chance before the hanyou's might. With a furious scream that turned into a long howl, Kouga unshackled his beast. Soon, an immense grey wolf stood before Kenshin, slavering and snapping.

The tableau froze and with a minute turn of his head, Kenshin speared Sesshomaru with a blue gaze. His eyes burned in his impassive face. Then with slow and deliberate leisure, he dropped his staff and grasped the hilt of a sword sheathed at his hip, settling into a stance Sesshomaru knew well.

As the giant wolf leapt, Kenshin moved. Almost faster than Sesshomaru could see, that blade whipped out and cut a glowing white line all the way across Kouga's throat. The hanyou rolled between the stumbling creature's legs and stood strong at the rear. Kouga paused, beastly face slack as he processed what occurred. Then blood, crimson and dark, burst from his neck and soaked the ground like an inundating rain. Then the wolf's form began to shrink and twist until only Kouga's youkai shape remained, face down and gasping in the muck.

Kenshin stalked the downed wolf lord and flipped him over onto his back. Kouga grasped at his weeping throat and stretched one hand out to the hanyou in a silent plea. Raising the katana high, Kenshin dropped to one knee, piercing the flailing body on the ground right through the heart. He then turned his face to where his father floated and gave the blade a vicious twist, never taking his eyes away from Sesshomaru even as Kouga's crimson vitality showered him.

Such superb brutality stunned the taiyoukai motionless. He could do naught but wait and see what happened next.

Kenshin pulled his sword free and shook the blood off with one swipe through the air. Sheathing it once more, he picked up his staff and stowed it as well. Then, with studied nonchalance, he picked up the wolf lord's corpse and slung it over one shoulder, unmindful of the mud and blood that dripped onto his haori. Kenshin turned his back on Sesshomaru with deliberation and walked away. A walk that soon became a jog, then a flat out sprint with high leaps over obstacles.

It did not give the impression that Kenshin fled in cowardice. Rather that Sesshomaru fell short of being worth his time. Oh, how that stung once it occurred to the mighty taiyoukai. The flames of wrath coiled in his belly, and Sesshomaru felt his lips stretch in a fearsome smile. So, the boy would seek to anger him with humiliation. Well, it worked. Let him come now. Let him test his mettle on Bakusaiga's edge. He appreciated the subtle manipulation the boy employed.

Jaken wheezed from below, where he hung from the end of the moko-moko, "I do not like that smile of yours, Sesshomaru-sama. It frightens me."

"As it should." Directing his power, he turned the cloud back south.

"Will you not follow him?" asked Myouga at his ear.

"No. He is no mindless fiend merely seeking vengeance, as I'd feared. Something else has occurred, something I do not understand."

"Will you have me find out?" the flea youkai volunteered.

"It hardly matters. The whelp has his path and flies on it straight and true. He will find me when he is done."

"Done with what, Sesshomaru-sama?"

"Killing all the other living lords, I assume. Even now, he does my work for me." He hummed a little noise of amusement.

"Why do you sound so happy about that? Doesn't it vex your plans?" Jaken tightened his grip on the moko-moko as Sesshomaru flew through an updraft.

"There are enough youkai already bound if there is a need for them in the future. I have left instructions for their release with the new human lords of this land."

"But he's coming to kill you!"

Sesshomaru stopped and plucked the imp from his perch, pulling him up eye to eye. "Yes! And what a glorious battle it will be. Did you not see? Did you not feel in you a joy at witnessing his glory? Finally, I may get my just desserts. And it will be sweet."

He laughed as he plummeted through the sky as fast as he could make his cloud fly.


	20. Chapter 20

"I have come for my inheritance."

Sitting in his shambles of a study, Sesshomaru let his gaze slide across the floor and up hakama-clad legs and simple black haori to settle on a face as bland and neutral as he knew his own to be. He waved at the sundered castle around them. "I am afraid there is not much of one left."

Was it his imagination or did one corner of Kenshin's lips go up by the slightest increment? "Whatever you have left, I'll take it."

"My life only, such as it is." Sesshomaru gestured to the shogi board that was the only thing he'd bothered to save in this wretched place. "One more game, before we settle this?"

"No, tou-san, I will not shame you by trouncing you at shogi."

His brow raised at that. "Learned artfulness, did we?"

"And more." Kenshin approached and sat opposite from him at his writing desk. Sitting in cross-legged fashion, the hanyou sighed. "It is good to sit. Even for a moment."

"You have been busy." Wetting a brush in his inkwell, Sesshomaru drew a fresh piece of parchment to him and composed his last thoughts, line by line-

'_Tell my love I tried.'_

_"_So, they are all dead?" he asked of the black-clad warrior who'd come to kill him-

_'If all my kind disappear'_

"Dead as last spring's sakura blossoms."

_'It is destiny.'_

Sesshomaru paused and hummed in deep thought, then asked as he started another haiku, "Out of curiosity, what do you do with the bodies?"-

_'Better that I die'_

"It is not important now." Strange how Kenshin did not look at him now. He seemed engrossed with the characters taking shape under his father's hand.

_'than never to have known you.'_

"I suppose not." With that, he finished the last line-

_'Or met our Kenshin.'_

The inu lord shot a look of recrimination at his son. "You made me wait a long time. I hope it was worth it, that you have strength enough to defeat me now."

"My apologies, tou-san." A wry hint of sarcasm colored his tone.

With a steady and neat hand, he folded the parchment into a lotus and pushed it across the scarred table toward Kenshin. "When you see her, would you . . .."

As always, his mouth failed him when his emotions were involved. Gratitude filled him when Kenshin took that fragile flower and placed it with care inside his haori. "I will."

A long moment passed between father and son, filled with pain and remorse on Sesshomaru's part, but hope that one day, Kagome could see their son, alive and well and grown into a man. It was the only selfish desire left to him.

"It is time," Kenshin said.

"Well past." Sesshomaru stood and led them out into the open air. He looked back on his home, covered with moss, forgotten by all but the eldest of ningen. "Jaken."

The imp appeared from wherever he'd been hiding, sliding just into view from around a cracked column. "Sesshomaru-sama."

"When the whelp has proven his worth, you will serve him as is proper."

"Sesshomaru-sama! I cannot! This lowly servant will follow his master into the abyss if need be."

"Jaken, you will obey me."

"No, lord! Please do not make me depart from your service! In all my long years at your side, I have never asked you for anything, have I?" The imp crawled to him on the ground, and clung to his hakama. Sesshomaru resisted the inappropriate urge to kick Jaken. Just once for old time's sake. "I will follow you forever. Wherever you go, Jaken will be there to serve Sesshomaru-sama!"

He stared down at the earnest eyes swimming in tears. Tears for him. He felt a touch of warmth then, for the faithful imp. "As you wish, servant."

"I will dispatch him painlessly," Kenshin said, a small smile on his face.

"This lowly servant thanks the master's worthy heir." Then the imp retreated to the sidelines to watch, face already creased in deep and abiding grief.

Sesshomaru drew Bakusaiga in an unhurried motion and stood ready. Across the courtyard from him, Kenshin pulled his staff loose. The inu lord frowned. "What say you draw steel and we finish this."

Kenshin let a lazy grin curl his lips under dangerously twinkling eyes. "When I draw my sword, the battle will be over."

"I see your travels have taught you arrogance." Then Sesshomaru flew at him, sword leading. Steel rang on wood in blow after blow.

His son shot the tip of his staff forward and forced the lord to dodge or have his jaw broken. "I prefer to think of it as confidence!"

Bakusaiga found a small opening to dip in and score a line across Kenshin's chest. Sesshomaru smirked. "_Over_-confidence, perhaps."

Kenshin chuckled, dark and low. "Perhaps."

Then he took the initiative and Sesshomaru had to leap back over and over to avoid the jabbing end of that staff as it tried to pick apart his defenses. Oh, the boy was good. So very good. His heart sang with exhilaration and he rebutted with energy whips, lashing, biting at Kenshin's heels as the hanyou was forced to retreat himself. With little effort, Kenshin evaded the yellow lines of force that tore up the ground around him.

Like an acrobat, Kenshin dove back in and landed a kick to Sesshomaru's sternum that knocked him back. Only by flipping himself and exerting his youki did the taiyoukai stop himself from landing square on his ass. How undignified.

The hanyou snarked, "Perhaps not."

Again, that feeling of something amiss. He decided to probe. "You seem far too calm. Where is the hate, boy?"

The hanyou spun his staff in an arc meant to trip him. Sesshomaru jumped over it with ease and riposted with an energy blast from Bakusaiga. Kenshin twisted mid-air around it and extended his staff. As it clipped his enemy, hanyou said, "Oh, it's there. Like a nail in my heart, it is there."

"Let me see it. Show me that hate!" Bakusaiga dove in to slice along his son's right thigh. Blood soaked through the hakama, making it even blacker.

"Even now, you seek to manipulate me. You used me my whole life. Ever since I showed up on your doorstep." If anything, the whelp's attacks grew more focused in his rage, not less. A furnace of azure fire blazed from Kenshin's eyes. "But a nail in my heart did not keep it from beating. I wondered why my beloved father betrayed me thus. I searched for answers."

"And what did you find?" Sesshomaru had difficulty repelling those passion-driven attacks, even with bursts of youki he could not keep every blow at bay. His beast howled for freedom but he kept it locked away. The dog would only hinder him in this battle of strategies and deep-laid plans. It took everything he had just to keep up with his son.

"Did you know that all around the world, mundanity is prevailing? Nearly all the uncanny creatures have disappeared." He dodged his father's poison claw with a lithe swooping motion and lashed out with a fist to strike at his face. Sesshomaru swayed back from the punch only to find that Kenshin braced his staff at the lord's belly. The taiyoukai knew this maneuver and slid to one side just as the pole lengthened out to fifteen feet or more.

Flexing his legs, Sesshomaru leapt backwards in a huge bound and stood panting in exertion. He realized with chagrin that he was sweating, felt it running down his back under the silk of his haori. He looked at his heir with wonder. Demon strength, ningen passion. Truly, a devastating combination. Kenshin had somehow harnessed his dual nature to become greater than the sum of both.

"I have met the hidden small gods on the main continent. They had among their number a seer." Kenshin set his staff aside and gripped the hilt of his sword. "I know what you have done, tou-san. And I forgive you."

A sigh drifted out of his parched throat as the lord squared off with his son in what he knew would be the last pass. Yet, hearing those words from his son made his heart beat fit to bursting.

Kenshin stood utterly still. "Are you ready?"

Sesshomaru straightened and prepared to meet his end. "Come."

The hanyou ran at him in a straight rush, making Sesshomaru wonder if the whelp expected him to just stand there. Well, if so, Kenshin was in for a shock. As the boy drew his blade in the same lateral slice he'd used on Kouga, Sesshomaru tilted his Bakusaiga in the correct counter. Suddenly, the hanyou seemed to blur and disappear before his eyes. So fast. _Sneaky whelp!_

A whistling of the wind made the lord look up. Far too close to dodge or counter, Kenshin dropped through the air from above, sword leading.

Agony lanced through Sesshomaru's chest as the blade pierced him right through the heart. He collapsed to his knees under his son's weight, Bakusaiga clattering to the ground at his side. A convulsive cough seized him and he felt his innards tear a little, and the crushing sensation of his vital fluids leaking to fill his chest cavity. His youki fluttered and died. There would be no mending this wound.

With trembling hand, he reached up and cupped his son's face. Those blue eyes, so like hers, looked down at him with such anguish and love that if that organ had not already sundered by steel, his heart would break in the face of it. He wheezed through lips coated in blood, "My son. My true heir. I die knowing you will live gloriously."

"No, father, you will not die." Kenshin smiled as he rained tears down on his father's face. "Read the inscription on this blade we have made of Tenseiga."

He peered down at the writing. "E-eimin-seiga. The f-fang of eternal slumber."

"No demon struck down with this weapon shall die of it. They shall but sleep and heal of their grievous wound until the world needs them again someday. Then they shall rise in all their magnificence, fully mantled in their power." Kenshin put his lips to his father's cheek and whispered, "You shall see her again when you wake. And now, a message for you to take with you. Tell that Amanojaku when you see him that Kenshin understands and thanks him for saving his tou-sama."

Such wonders he had never even imagined. Then a sorrow struck him and he looked up at Kenshin. "But you shall be alone these long years before I wake again."

"No, tou-san, I will live among the ningen and help where I can. For there is something you never understood as a ruler."

"What is that, my son?"

"They are all _my_ people. Youkai and ningen alike." The way Kenshin said, 'my' made it seem the sort of possessive declaration youkai made at the outset of war. Fierce and full of threat for any who came to challenge his dominion. "Now, tou-san, like King Arthur, sleep."

"To the . . . island-valley of Avalon;-" Sesshomaru whispered, his eyes closing to slits so that, while his strength failed and his body grew lethargic and still, his last sight would be the blue of his son's eyes.

Kenshin whispered back, " . . . where falls not hail, or rain,-"

His awareness dimmed to a single point. Sesshomaru no longer felt the sting of the blade in his flesh. "-or any . . . snow . . .."

He closed his eyes for the last time in this age.

And opened them again to see _blue_. The same blue but in a different face. _Her_ face. Beaming down at him with a smile so bright, it outshone the sun. "Kagome?"

"Sesshomaru!" She flung herself into his arms. Arms that rose up and held her all too eagerly. The rapid thumping of his heart drew his attention to the fact that he still had one. And how it beat so savagely.

He sat up, and crushed her to him. Breathing her very essence in, he prayed that if this was a dream, then let him never wake. He missed her so. Unable to help himself, he buried his hands in her hair and lapped at her throat, drawing her tighter and closer.

"Ahem."

The taiyoukai started and looked around. Here were his people. So many of them, clustered around them in this huge stone sepulchre. Inuyasha stood at their fore, the Lady-Mother at his shoulder, Kouga at his side. Along with a host of others.

A bolt of chagrin shot through Sesshomaru and while he didn't let her go, he stopped trying to molest Kagome in front of all these awakened youkai.

Kagome said, with urgency, "Sesshomaru, I woke you all because we need you."

"What has happened?"

"The Lord of the Deep has risen. He is destroying Tokyo-no, all of Japan. Even the other nations are battling sea monsters on their shores. All over the world, lands are being annihilated."


	21. Chapter 21

Sesshomaru frowned. "Who is this Lord of the Deep?"

The Lady-Mother stepped forth. "An ancient youkai that dwells in the ocean. So ancient that he is near elemental. We thought him sleeping these past ten thousand years."

"Why does he strike now?"

Samehiro, the shark lord, said, "The ancient covenant between water and land is broken. There are no defenders on the shore, so he seeks lordship of all the Earth."

"You must hurry, all of you. Amanojaku stands against the beast, but even one with his strength will fall to one so mighty." Kagome pulled herself away from Sesshomaru and took up her bow, which lay against the stone slab on which he'd slept.

"My sword?"

"Here." Inuyasha handed him Bakusaiga with a cocky grin. How strange to feel a shock of warmth seeing one he'd thought dead. The hanyou noticed his steady regard and queried, "What?"

Sesshomaru shook his head, whether unwilling or unable to reply, he didn't know.

"C'mon," Kagome said. Then she led them up and out of the underground chamber.

"I like this ningen of yours who would order demons around," The Lady-Mother remarked as they walked out into the sun.

"Hn. Her impudence grows on you." Sesshomaru smiled at the look Kagome threw him.

In the distance, a . . . city burned. The tall buildings Kagome told him about stretched into the sky, their tops a ruin of twisted metal and glass. The screams of multitudes drifted to his ears. Large, multiform water youkai wreaked havoc on the populace. And there, in the harbor, a massive shape reached miles long tentacles into the city and ripped it apart, piece by piece. Its bulbous body bounced in the waves, causing small tsunamis to roll far inland. Squid-like, but with a clamshell head out of which it bellowed.

As one, the youkai took to the sky. Sesshomaru pulled Kagome to him as his cloud gathered at his feet. Soon, they zipped across the landscape in droves. All the landbound demons flowed over the fields below. A small dot emerged from the confusion of smoke and fire of the cityscape and flew at the monstrosity with murderous intent.

Sesshomaru saw the flash of steel in the tiny creature's hand, heard that huge thing wail in pain. It lashed out with its limbs, but failed to hit the small, fast target harassing it. Now that they had nearly closed the distance, the taiyoukai saw the masked man and knew him for the one-eyed hermit, Amanojaku. What a fighter the hermit was. Such audacious maneuvers Sesshomaru had never seen.

Close enough to make out the words in the shout, they all listened as the Lord of the Deep spoke, "Little annoyance, I will strike you down!"

"Go back to the deeps, lord! This is not your domain!"

"And who do you think you are? Telling me where the borders of my domain lie?" A tentacle flexed and swung at Amanojaku. "I will take this island and devour all beings in it. The ningen who pollute my waters with their waste will know what it is like to become waste!"

Amanojaku severed the limb that shot toward him with a flash of his sword and shouted back, "This land is mine!"

A deep laugh sounded from the ocean lord. "Yours? You think I can not see your true nature? Hanyou!"

A wave of shock flowed through Sesshomaru, along with a deep suspicion. The style of swordplay rang familiar to him. Further confirmed when Amanojaku retorted, "Hanyou I might be, but this land is mine through right of conquest. I bested every taiyoukai and I will best you!"

"Foolish bastard whelp! I will destroy you for your presumption!" A vicious exchange of blows resounded throughout the city.

Sesshomaru shouted down to his brother. "Inuyasha, take down the ocean lord's minions in the shadow of the tall dwellings."

"Hn," said the hanyou with a devilish smirk. He turned to the youkai around him. "C'mon, you demons, follow this hanyou bastard into battle!"

With a roar, they flowed into Tokyo, leaving only the lords and greater demons to stand at Amanojaku's back.

Kagome tugged at his haori. "Hurry!"

In a flash, they stood around the hermit, facing the Lord of the Deeps with drawn weapons in every hand. The ocean beast seemed taken aback. Sesshomaru took advantage of the hesitation to say to Amanojaku, "Kenshin said that he understands and thanks you for saving his tou-san. But I think you already knew that, didn't you . . . my son?"

In a dry and amused voice, the trickster said, "You know me too well, father."

"No, I do not, but I would like to." Wistful melancholy curled around his tone.

A look at Kagome's stricken face told him a surprising thing. Sesshomaru frowned. "You did not know?"

She shook her head, too stunned to speak.

Amanojaku, or rather, Kenshin said, "No, she did not. I gave her your message in this guise."

"We have much to talk about later." Sesshomaru directed his cloud to land on the piers and set his love on her feet there. "I go to fight. Stay safe, Kagome. I've waited a long time to see you again."

"You want me to just stay here?" Outrage flitted across her face.

Sesshomaru laughed. "A few blessed arrows wouldn't be _un_appreciated. But this is a battle between demons. For territory."

"The old ones cling to tradition?" Amazing how mercurial her expressions could be. Anger one second, amusement the next.

"Yes." With that, Sesshomaru flew back to the gathering above. The whole host of taiyoukai stood behind Kenshin, deferring to him.

"What is this?" The ocean lord boomed, tentacles waving in confusion. "The youkai of this land follow a hanyou?"

The Lady-Mother said, "We all fell at his hand. We were saved by the same. He is our lord."

Sesshomaru flashed his teeth in a predatory leer. "My son is strong and worthy."

"Degenerate! Depraved! Tainted youkai of the dry lands, you will die!" With that, the fire of battle flamed anew. The Lord of the Deep flailed thousands of tentacles at the host. Seiryu unshackled his beast and towered over the battlefield in his full dragon glory. He tackled the main body while the rest took apart the reaching limbs. The fight raged for hours. Youki flashed over the sky in waves of multi-colored light as they bent their full might to their endeavor.

The balance shifted as the forces sent into the city to clear it of the ocean lord's minions joined the rest at the harbor. The Lord of the Deep saw the tide turning and sounded a bellowed retreat. His few remaining forces followed him as he fled back to his watery realm. Kenshin floated at the very mouth of the river and shouted at that retreating back, "_Mine!"_

It carried over swell and mountains alike, likely heard by every ear from shore to shore.

A cheer went up among the prevailing forces. Sesshomaru swooped down and picked up the miko once more, nuzzling her cheek for an instant before flying back to the victorious horde of demons.

Kenshin turned and looked at the youkai he ruled. He held a hand up for silence. "This is a new land. A chance to start over. I will not tolerate any of you tormenting the ningen of this world. The strong no longer devour the weak. The strong protect the weak. The separation of the youkai and ningen nation is no more. You are all_ mine_! And I would have the things that are mine remain whole and unbroken."

Approval filled Sesshomaru to the brim and overflowed.

"The Lord of the Deep knows only the old ways. He will want retribution." Seiryu said, his coils gliding through the air.

"He is welcome to try. He might find that difficult." Kenshin snorted, then pointed his sword, Dattaisaiga, at all of them in turn. "For this land is defended once again."

Sesshomaru saw the idea take root in all the faces around him, saw it catch fire in all of their eyes.

Kenshin continued, "No, go. Show the humans they do not need to fear _us._ Find a place for yourselves among them, as their stewards and protectors. And all across this land are more of your people trapped in totems. Free them. I will help you if you ask. But do not think I will be merciful if you defy me!"

They scattered, all but the few that remained of Kagome's pack. Some of the youkai, Sesshomaru knew, would try to find familiar haunts. He wished them luck.

"Kagome-chan!" A voice from below drew all their attentions. A familiar kitsune flew towards them.

The miko's eyes went huge in her face and her lips stretched into a grin. "Shippo! Look at you! You're tall!"

Sesshomaru gave her a light toss, knowing the fox would catch her. He watched them embrace for a long while, a smile flitting around his lips. Then he turned to his son, who also watched. That damned mask covered his face still and his cowl hid his eyes from view. The inu lord said, "This Sesshomaru would like to gaze upon his son's face, if the lord would allow it."

Those hands that had danced so lethal a dance came up and drew the hood back, revealing close-cropped silver hair crowned by snowy ears. The crescent moon sigil glowed from between his two brows. Kenshin loosened the straps that held the mask over his nose and mouth in place and slowly drew it to the side. His human blood showed in the small lines around the eyes and mouth, but for the most part, he seemed unchanged. Except . . . only one blue eye blazed from that face. A patch covered the other, but the skin around it, scarred and welted, told a story of violent removal.

The taiyoukai traced the edges of it with one long finger. "Oh, my son. What has happened to you these long years?"

"Too many things to count. But this," he said with a dismissive wave, "well, power and knowledge come at a great price. Where you only sought to preserve the future, I had to change it."

Sesshomaru opened his mouth to ask what he meant, but the miko interrupted him.

"Kenshin?" Kagome held one hand out to her son, who took it in both of his. "My chibi? Why didn't you tell me?"

"I wanted to, okaa-san. All these three years at your side, I wanted to tell you everyday. Come, I'll explain at home." With a beckoning hand, he bade them follow as he flew away into the burning city.

_Home? _Near the center of Tokyo, there existed a pleasant surprise. A piece of the past, preserved behind a barrier. Sesshomaru paused at the property's threshold and felt familiar holy energies roll over him. They tasted him and recognizing him as a friend of old, let him pass.

Kagome looked around in awe. "Kaede-sama's house . . .."

"Yes. I had it kept pristine as soon as I had the means. Turns out currency only gets more valuable the longer you hold it." Kenshin ran a hand over his head in chagrin. "Come. I will make tea."

They sat on cushions around the low table that had replaced Kaede's cookfire and looked around in nostalgic wonder. Sesshomaru breathed deep to try to recapture the past, but time erased all but a hint of it. He drank of the tea and listened to the others speak in low voices. Shippo and Kagome talked of all that happened after she fell out of the past.

Sesshomaru slid his hand across the tabletop and covered Kagome's with it. She turned a smile of such beauty on him that he couldn't help but answer it with a small smile of his own. Inuyasha watched them out of the corner of his eye and seemed to be doing his best not to look pleased. Inu-Kenshin looked into his cup, face troubled.

The inu lord pulled Kagome to him, nestling her in his lap and then looked to his son. "I think it is time for a story. Would you not agree, Kenshin?"

His son started and looked guilty for a second before laughing and looking around at all of them. "Indeed. Well, much of the story you already know, tou-san. You raised me to help you save the youkai of the past so they could wake to defend Japan in the future. What you did not know, is that when the seer showed me the truth, he showed me _many_ futures . . . "

Kenshin talked long into the night. Sesshomaru learned that his might have been a deep game, but his son's had been even deeper and far more complex. In the other 'timelines' as he called them, in the most likely, Sesshomaru indeed bound his people against an uncertain future, but when they roused in their weakened state to fight the ocean lord, they all fell. Then the world darkened for many centuries under the Lord of the Deep's rule. The Inu-Kenshin who grew up in the future under that rule became cold and heartless, a scourge on humanity, eventually displacing the Lord of the Deep, but then reigning over it with tyranny.

". . . so I gave my eye in exchange for three trips into the past. One to delivery myself to you. One to give you the ingot that imbued Tenseiga with its power to make a demon sleep for an age without diminishing him. And one last time to save my Honsho by slipping a prayer slip with his true name on it into the pouch of a conveniently placed monk." Then he pulled a battered old knife from his belt and set it on the table. It hummed with youki.

"Why did you not save Aiko?" Sesshomaru made himself ask.

Kenshin's brows creased and drew together. "I . . . made a choice. Without her death, I would not have sought revenge or the answer to your riddle. I would not have had it in myself to feel such hate. Of all the possible outcomes, letting Aiko go held the best results."

"Oh, Kenshin." Kagome reached across the table to squeeze his arm. One looking in from outside might find it strange to see a ningen onna still in the flower of her youth comforting a centuries-old hanyou lord with such maternal regard in her face. But among them, here, it felt right. "When you showed up at my door, I knew I felt a kinship to you, but I thought perhaps you only knew my lost friends and sought me out of curiosity. You were so curious about me, asking so many questions. Then when the attacks started, you offered to take little Kenshin to the past to protect him, I knew you for a true friend. How I wished I'd been able to go with you."

"No, you were needed here to start unsealing demons from their totems. Plus, the magic was limited."

All around the room, heads nodded in understanding. Kenshin sighed as though a great burden had been lifted from him.

A thought struck Sesshomaru. "Where is that Jaken?"

"Here, lord!" The imp trotted in from outside, much to Sesshomaru's amazement.

The lord quickly settled his face into a blank mask with the tiniest hint of a sneer. "Just making sure you did not forget your vow. You said you'd serve this Sesshomaru forever."

They all laughed at the imp, who fell over himself to kneel to his lord. Sesshomaru let himself join in, a soft chuckle at the situation and its paradoxes. This ancient human dwelling in the midst of skyscrapers. A new world filled once more with old magics. How would it shape them? Would they adapt? He held high hopes that they would. Old ways and new ways would merge and somewhere in there, perhaps they'd end up somewhere glorious.

Later, after all the stories had been told and dinner had been eaten, the others slept. Sesshomaru found himself outside, staring at the new sky with old stars. The moon hung fat and low between the tall buildings around him.

Behind him, Kagome said, "My family lives right over there."

"A . . . 'white house with green shutters'?" He turned and smiled. "Are they safe?"

"Yes. My grandfather kept the ocean youkai at bay." She leaned into him and he curled his arms around her. "Was it really a century and more for you?"

"It felt far longer."

"It's only been three years for me since the well stopped working. I tried everything to get back there once I knew-" She held a hand over her womb. "I missed out on him growing up."

"He was loved. All his childhood, loved. Even when I could not be near, he had people who cherished him."

"I know. I feel it in him. I just wish I'd seen it. His first tooth. His first step. All his firsts."

"Would that I could show them to you."

"It wouldn't be the same."

Silence fell for a long time then as they just held each other and thought of all the things they'd missed. Then Sesshomaru hummed at an amusing thought. "This Sesshomaru has a solution."

"Oh?" She arched a dark brow at him.

"Seems a time to start anew has come upon us. Mistakes of the past fall away and second chances seem likely to fall from the sky like rain in the next few years. There is no need for ancient threats to continue to grip us tight in their claws."

Kagome rolled her eyes at his playful and too-flowery words, but indulgently waved for him to go on.

Sesshomaru rubbed a hand over her belly as she had done a little while ago. He smiled a hungry and fiendish smile into blue eyes. "Tomorrow we help our Kenshin rebuild Japan. But tonight seems a good a time as any for . . . _new_ beginnings."

She giggled. "Oh, I get you. Think you can just waltz back into my life and knock me up again, hmm?"

"Yes. As many times as you'd like. We will populate the world with our offspring, so strong and beautiful." He smirked at the eager light in her eyes. "And this time, there will be no need to miss a single second."

"What if I'm not ready for kids?"

He turned a sharp eye on her and saw that she laughed at him, her eyes danced with it. "Hn. Coy little miko. I know you better than that."

Kagome beamed at him, then gave him a kiss that fired his passions. He nipped at her lips and gave thanks to whatever divine agency brought them together again. The miko pulled away, breathless and flushed. "One child out of wedlock is enough. You'll have to make an honest woman of me."

"Wed? Me?" He pretended to consider just to see the nervous smile falter on her face. Then he leaned in and whispered against her ear, hot with his want for her, "This Sesshomaru can do that."

* * *

A/N: Well, it has been a fun ride. Thank all of you for reading and your kind reviews. I'm glad we could dream together for a time. That's it for the main story, buuuut I might do a follow-up chapter for giggles and fluffiness, maybe. Not sure yet. But it might happen. Yeah, an epilogue . . . hmmmm . . ..

Anyway, let me know what you think. Reviews, pms, whatever! ;3


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